The dragon's bookworm
by FlyingZebra
Summary: The whole guild is on one important mission for the council, a certain bookworm is a little doubtful. Lucky for her, there's an iron dragon slayer by her side the whole way through. It's a story of how regardless of their difficulty to show emotion they both find a way to protect each other and fight alongside each other with a bond that no one else could understand. Love.
1. The dragon's bookworm

A GaLe Fan fiction

Gajeel x Levy

The Dragon's bookworm.

Gajeel's eyelids were heavy as he woke from his long sleep. After a month's long mission with Patherlily the first thing he thought about doing when he got back was to sleep. That was three days ago. All the dragon slayer did the past few days was sleep, eat and watch TV. After all, the mission he was on involved one large dark cave just riddled with monsters and dark merchants looking for trouble. He lifted himself to sit on the side of his bed and pushed the cover off of himself. A cold draft hit his bare chest and legs. He could hear Lily's soft breathing which set him at ease; he was always looking out for his partner. Ever since they came back from Edolas he was always grateful for Pantherlily's company and friendship. For a cat or more precisely for an exceed he was very wise and gave him surprisingly useful advice about his life, and her. Gajeel shook his head. Dammit, it always came back to her. Stupid shrimp. Constantly swimming around in his thoughts like the little shrimp she was. He shook his head again in a failing attempt to get her out of his mind and decided to head to the guild.

"Yo, Lily get up" The slayer exclaimed whilst putting on a grey shirt. The exceed moved and growled like a small kitten in protest. Gajeel sighed. "Suit yourself, I'm heading off to the guild buddy." He stated softly, Lily nodded before a low purr could be heard. Gajeel grinned and finished dressing, and finally grabbing his new bandana off of his bedside table wrapped it around his head just above his eyes. And without another word he shut his bedroom door, took a few steel nails from his kitchen counter and headed off to the guild with a mouthful of steel.

Typically, the guild was noisy and as lively as ever. Gajeel stood in the doorway to his guild of Fairy Tail. As usual he scanned the room and spotted a familiar blue headed mage. He smiled a little at the sight of the laughing mage, standing with her best friend Lucy. He finally broke off his stare and found an empty booth on the other side of the room and wondered how long it would take for people to realize he was back from his month's mission. Which didn't take long for a pink haired dragon slayer who began to approach Gajeel.

"Gajeel! You're back! How'd your mission go? Where's Lily? Nothing happened to him di-" Natsu stopped as Gajeel cut him off.

"Stop asking so many fucking questions you fiery bastard, the mission was fine, Lily's just sleeping, 'kay?" The iron dragon slayer replied gruffly, not in the mood for the fire mage's happy being.

"You wanna fight you iron bastard?" Natsu shouted to his face, clearly he wasn't in the mood for Gajeel either.

"Try me!" He shouted back with a smirk on his face, this was going to be fun. He hadn't sparred with anyone in the guild for a while, and he needed to test his strength. He stood up and cracked his knuckles.

"Alright! I'm all fired up!" Natsu shouted, bringing his face up to Gajeel's height. Gajeel caught the fire blazing from the dragon slayer's hands and felt the heat being conducted by the studs in his knuckles. Gajeel transformed his right hand into an iron club and brought it infront of Natsu's face quickly extending the club so as to knock him back. Gajeel let out a laugh as he went flying across the room. The fire mage gave Gajeel a determined look as he leapt from the ground to Gajeel's direction. The members of the Guild were beginning to crowd around now, watching their fight. Natsu grunted in the air as he flew down to Gajeel and brought his fist back.

"Iron first of the fire dragon!" He shouted as he brought his flaming fist forward in Gajeel's direction, he thought quickly and dodged to the side, making Natsu go straight into the booth Gajeel was previously sitting in. "Bastard" The fire dragon slayer mumbled as he got up from the wreck of wooden debris. Gajeel only chuckled in return and smiled. He continued to form an iron spike from his left hand, and began to charge at Natsu. The pink haired mage suddenly snapped into concentration as he prepared to fight Gajeel head on. Natsu stood with his legs apart and brought his hands behind his back.

"Fire dragon's breath!" Natsu shouted once more, a long trail of flames was forced from his mouth, but Gajeel saw it. He quickly jumped up and forward just missing the hot flames. Small screams were coming from behind him as people from the guild must have had to dodge the attack as well. He brought the spike towards Natsu as he fell towards him, but to no avail Natsu had realized and brought both his hands on either side of the iron spike. Gajeel formed his right hand into an iron club again and forced it into Natsu's gut; making him splutter. He proceeded to retaliate with a flaming leg with a kick to Gajeel's gut. Now both of them were winded. Gajeel's iron weapons turned back into his usual studded hands, as he brought one to his stomach. "Now you're the bastard." The iron dragon slayer said barely audible.

"Not… yet." Natsu smiled as he brought his hands behind his back once more. "Fire dragons wing at-" He suddenly stopped as he brought his attention towards a redheaded mage standing on one of the tables.

"OI!" Erza shouted, her voice boomed around the room stopping everyone in their tracks, bringing their attention to her. "Sorry to cut you guys off, but we have an important issue to discuss with all of the guild." The requip mage stated, Gajeel wasn't going to argue, he wouldn't admit it out loud but that woman scared the life out of Gajeel even at the guild normally. She especially terrified him whenever he witnessed her defeating an enemy. She was badass in all ways, and there was no arguing with her, if you did then there wouldn't be much hope for you; as you'd be in the hospital for months.

"Everyone gather by the stage in 5 minutes, and sort out this mess while you're at it." Erza left it at that as she jumped down from the table and left to go behind Fairy tail's main stage. She's like a second master in this guild sometimes, Gajeel wondered what was so important at this time of the year. It was only August, nothing special ever happened in such a mundane month. He was just pissed off what his fight with Salamander was cut off.

"Next time you're mind, fiery bastard." Gajeel grunted to Natsu with a smirk. He only retorted with an evil stare as in a 'yeah, whatever' kind of look. But Gajeel took no notice as he began walking towards the wooden stage. Until a voice caught his attention from behind him.

"Aren't you going to clear that up?" Gajeel recognized the small voice, Levy stood beside him. Yet her height was nowhere near Gajeel's himself. He looked towards her, and he knew that he hung over her like a skyscraper, but wasn't really bothered. He found her size cute. Gajeel slapped himself in his mind, idiot. Thinking about her like that again, he hated himself for it. Around her he always softened, he felt he had to, to be around such a kind character. It surprised him that she ever wanted to talk to him after the whole fiasco when he attacked her and the rest of 'Team shadow gear'. He always regretted doing it, he remembered painting the phantom lord mark on her small flat stomach. And hanging all three of them to the tree, and couldn't help but admire the shrimps beauty, and her petit body. He slapped himself metaphorically again, he hated remembering that. But couldn't help it, every time he saw Levy, he was her unconscious body hanging from that tree. And had the guilt of remembering it was him who did it all. Which made him all the more confused about why she forgave him for it all. She spoke to him like all of her other friends. He couldn't help but be amazed by her forgiving and kind nature. Nothing like his own.

"Uhm, Gajeel?" Her sudden voice made him jump a little, forgetting that she'd asked him a question.

"Oh, no I'm sure Salamander can handle it himself." He smirked, in an attempt to cover the fact he must have been standing there for a few minutes saying nothing. He wasn't about to clean up something that was destroyed from a fight initiated by Natsu. He could handle it fine, at least Gajeel presumed. But everyone knew Natsu wasn't one for clearing up things he destroyed. Someone would eventually; he figured it always was cleaned up by someone at somepoint. Levy chuckled at Gajeel for an unknown reason to him.

"Ok then, here let's go and see what Erza's got planned, eh?" She smiled cheerfully at him and grabbed his arm guiding him to the front stage. He had realized after some time at the Guild that she was the only one he would allow to get this close. Apart from his partner Lily, who was his best friend. If anyone else acted the way Levy did with him, he would just feel blatantly embarrassed and not to mention, uncomfortable. As much as he hated to admit it, he took a liking to the shrimp. And regretted doing what he did to her ever since he realised she had forgiven him, that day when Jet and Droy took it upon themselves to get revenge. Poor shrimp was behind that tree like she hadn't seen anything so frightening in her life, and found it so goddamn cute.

He followed his small blue haired friend over to the crowd of guild members, standing with Salamander and the blondie, who seemed to be engrossed in a conversation about a mission they were going to go on. Gajeel remembered the time he tried to talk to Natsu about love. He seemed completely lost in the fact, he knew how he felt, just didn't realise it was love.

_Poor flaming bastard._

He thought, and then realised Lucy was the one he should feel sorry for. It was blatant they like eachother, but never did anything about it. Not that he was one to talk. Gajeel felt a blush creep into his cheeks as his site returned to the top of Levy's head, trying not to think like that about her was hard for him. His attention was brought from Levy to the stage as he heard Erza walking onto the stage, in... heels?

"Listen up everyone!" She shouted, Gajeel looked to see Erza surprisingly dressed as if she were about to go to a really posh manor for dinner. She wore a long sleek black dress with a slit on one side, exposing her left leg up to her thigh, as well as the strapped black heels on her feet to match. Her hair was down, but some pulled back into a braid. Not like Levy though. _Dammit_! He needed to stop it, he wasn't going mushy anytime soon. Erza thankfully continued bringing his thoughts back to watch she was going to ask. "Master has a special announcement... master?"

The small grey haired Makarov appeared from behind the blood red curtains of the large guild stage. You wouldn't believe that the old man could kick ass if he wanted too. Although Gajeel grew up in Phantom Lord hearing about the man's strength and power. He always imagined a large, bulky man that would loom over him. Definitely different once he saw Makarov in real life, even though soon after realised his first expectation wasn't that wrong – when he used his magic. "Okay my Brats, we are all going on a mission. And I mean ALL of us! The council is under threat, and we as well as two other guilds have been asked to surround the area as well as some go looking for those threatening to kill council members and take over the building. Any plans you have are now cancelled, regardless of importance. This is a job Fairy Tail cannot afford to fail. Sorry Brats, we leave Monday. Pack enough for a while..." He said finishing, looking a little stressed. The little man pushed himself to far sometimes in Gajeel's opinion. The master trailed back off behind the curtains saying no more. Erza looked confused, as if expecting some kind of other news. She slummed off of the stage with her head hung low in disappointment. She was so strange sometimes.

After Erza left the stage the silence broke into the whole guild's gossiping to each other about the newly acquired mission, some were complaints about how inconvenient it was to them, so with squeals of excitement for a new job. Gajeel just brushed it off. He hadn't had any missions on his agenda, and really needed an opportunity to kick some ass, and this was his chance to do just that. However it seemed different to the small bookworm stood next to him.

"What's up Shrimp?" She must've been upset, she ignored the nickname and his question altogether. Why the hell was she upset? What was so important to her happening on Monday that made her so upset? "Seriously... Levy what's wrong?" Gajeel asked concerned, he touched her shoulder awkwardly in an effort to console her for whatever was wrong. She turned to him with puffy red eyes, and damp cheeks. She... she was crying? Gajeel's brain went into meltdown now, how was he supposed to deal with a crying fragile little woman when he was so large, and awkward.

"I- I can't go." She stuttered, her voice was croaky now. Man something must really have upset her?

"Well, why not? What are'ya doin' Monday that's so important?" Gajeel tried to step carefully, she got mad at him a lot for small things, and he really didn't want her to be angry and upset.

"I... I can't do it." She cried, sobbing uncontrollably. She turned and headed to an empty booth in the corner of the guild so go hide and cry. But Gajeel wasn't so stupid to just leave her. She got to the booth and crawled onto the cushions. Sat sheltered from the site of everyone else in the Guild she pulled her legs up to her chest and whimpered.

"What? Can't protect the Council?" Gajeel assumed, shuffling himself onto the booth's soft cushioned seats; genuinely concerned for his friend. All she did in response was nod into her legs slowly. Gajeel let out a sigh, grateful that no one had hurt her. He rested his back against the curve of the booth, looking up at the ceiling trying to think of something useful and not insulting to say. "Look, Levy..." She twitched at the use of her name so softly; she mustn't have been used to him calling her that.

"You aren't useless ya know? You are part of this guild because you're a strong mage, look shrimp, you're just as able to fight off the threats as anyone in this guild. So stop doubting yourself." He tried, not sure whether he was being any help or not, so he stared off to the rest of the guild, everyone had returned to their seats now and were talking in excitement. He thought they must have figured out any other problems they had for their upcoming whole-guild mission, everyone seemed happy – except Levy.

"Ga-gajeel?" He turned to look down at his bluenette friend, her sobs seemed to be subsiding for now. "Thank you. But promise me something?" She said breathing in short breathes as her tears stopped falling and she gathered herself back together. He was glad he did something right, he was never good with people crying – especially women.

"What's that?" He said brushing off her gratitude, not feeling like he did much anyways. He looked down at her slightly red puffy eyes and decided she couldn't get more cute if she tried, pouting like a puppy with those big green eyes. He didn't care at that moment whether it was wrong to think of her like that; he felt it was true.

"Stay by my side, I'm not good alone." Her words seemed hard for her to say, as she broke off from their stare and looked down at her lap in a kind of embarrassment. He spotted a blush on her cheeks as one crept up into his. Gajeel realised just how bad he was at understanding them. But he slowly took in her words and it reminded him of Tenroujima. He knew she'd remembered that day when saying that and he chuckled at her. He meant those words, he hated seeing her run away from him in anger. He truly wanted to protect Levy so his answer was true.

"I was planning on it anyways." He smiled and patted her on the head for reassurance. So. Darn. Cute.

_**Thank you to all those who have read the first chapter of my GaLe story! I promise the second chapter will be out soon! So thank you for reading and if you could leave a review and tell me what you think! I love the fairy tail ships and I plan on making more! Thanks!**_


	2. Finding out a little more

A cold breeze from her open window created goose bumps on her arm. Levy slowly stretched her limbs by pointing her toes and extending her arms, and she let out a large happy sigh. She smiled remembering the events of the previous day. Levy genuinely felt like she couldn't be any help to the guild, she was so small for one thing. It wasn't just her height though, she just felt small. Everyone in the guild was so amazing and strong, that they were practically undefeatable, Levy felt like she stuck out and couldn't help, but get emotional.

The solid script mage was so glad for Gajeel's presence, he always, despite his gruff nature, managed to say something helpful to her and she couldn't have been happier sitting there with him when she felt a little stronger. If Gajeel was by her side then she felt protected, if he was there then Levy knew she would be safe. She smiled to herself as she pulled herself up from her soft bed, brushing the red sheets from her legs, even with the cold breeze sending a shiver down her spine she fought the urge to crawl back into her warm bed and began to get changed. Today was Sunday, which meant they were all leaving tomorrow, and be gone for goodness knows how long. Levy felt comforted knowing the entire guild would be there protecting each other. But the fact that the council felt the need to bring two other guilds in as well set her on edge. Just what was threatening the Council anyways?

She pondered on it for a moment, while standing beside her bed, but just shook it off and decided to get ready first. She pulled her pyjama shorts off reluctantly and picked out a matching pair of underwear and bra. Slipping them both on in the cold, she quickly picked out a yellow tank top and a pair of blue jeans. She looked approvingly in the mirror at her outfit, deciding she looked cute enough. Maybe _he_ thought she was cute...

She shook her head, Levy didn't need to try and impress Gajeel. That was wrong; they were partners after all... She proceeded to brush her hair and wrap her favourite headband around her head. She looked at the clock hung above her door and relaxed as it read `10:12' she was quite early for a Sunday. Usually she'd sleep for a lot of the day, it was Sunday after all. Levy shuffled past her stacks of books to make her way into her undersized kitchen to make a quick few slices of toast. She continued to stuff her face while shutting the open window and heading out to the guild for the day. No one was in the hallways of Fairy Hills and she was grateful, as she still had a slice of toast hanging from her mouth. She shut her door behind her, and made her way downstairs.

The guild would be busy today, she could tell. Most people would be at home packing for tomorrow, or just running around the guild leaving it until later. Levy decided she wanted to find out about who they were facing, and made that the first thing on her agenda when she got to the guild. It would be easier to know them, to try and discover a weakness that way at least she could be some help at the very start. She opened the doors to the main entrance of the Fairy Tail girl's dorm and was greeted by a warm day. Levy smiled making her way to the guild.

"KYAA!" she screamed, as a big looming figure jumped out at her from behind one of the trees that stood in the front garden of the Fairy Hills building. She began choking on the piece of bread she had only just swallowed and started to cough. Thankfully she managed to breathe and steadied herself, to look up at the man and soon calmed herself down as she realised it was just a familiar iron dragon slayer laughing at her. Making her heart beat faster for two reasons this time. She wacked Gajeel on the arm as hard as she could even though she knew that it wouldn't affect his steel body one bit.

"Idiot! Why did you do that?" She asked, trying to calm herself down as her heart was racing. Even though she was slightly relieved that it was Gajeel and not some creepy pervert. Sadly she encountered those kinds of guys quite often. Levy looked at Gajeel but his expression seemed confused and a little bit annoyed he was just _looking_ at her. His eyes glaring at her up and down, she felt vulnerable under his stare, as she could see he looked annoyed.

_Why is he annoyed? He is the one that just scared me half to death!_

"Uh Gajeel?" She said, waving a hand infront of his face breaking off his stare. He looked a little embarrassed, it looked like he didn't realise he was staring. What was he thinking about? The bluenette thought about that a lot; she knew the way Gajeel thought must be a completely different concept to her.

"Oh... well uhm." He said in a short response, scratching the back of his head. He leaned closer to Levy making her feel a little uncomfortable with the imminence. It was like he had brushed off her question and returned his stare on her body. Levy was becoming frustrated not knowing what on Earthland he was doing. She looked at him, and followed his gaze. To her it seemed like he was studying her outfit, like an artist painting a model. She blushed, as she once again wacked him but this time on the top of his head. Levy wondered if he felt it through that thick bush of messy black hair he had.

"Gajeel, answer me already!" She said; ready to give up on the iron dragon slayer. He seemed different today, and she had just realised that he was outside her home. He was out here... waiting for her. The already present blush deepened to crimson at the thought. Gajeel came to where she lived to well, essentially scare her. That ruined it a little for her, but still. Oh how she wanted to wack _herself _for thinking like that about him.

"Oh, sorry shrimp... it's just. Your..." He looked like he was fighting himself as he looked truly confused about something.

"My what?" She said, growing tired of him not telling her straight about whatever was confusing him.

"Your clothes, they aren't the usual ones." He said standing up straight, looking like he just had the largest weight in the world taken off of his shoulders. That was it. Levy laughed, she found it funnier than it probably was. Such a big, intimidating guy to most was bothered that Levy wasn't wearing something he was used to seeing. That was it. She continued laughing and Gajeel looked utterly bewildered at her response to his statement.

"That – That's it?" She said, trying to speak properly through her laugh. Then she realised something. He had a problem with her clothes. She thought she looked cute in them. A pair of light blue skinny jeans and a cute yellow tank top, with some nice yellow ballet shoes. What was wrong with it? What if Gajeel thought she looked awful in them...? She'd have to run back up to her room and change! Wait, she didn't have to change just because he had a problem with her outfit. She stopped laughing and thought it through. She didn't care what he thought about what she looked like, right? Well, she shouldn't... but she figured that she must care at least a little. It hurt, knowing he didn't like it.

"Yeah, well no... It's just..." Gajeel said looking at the now calm Levy in confusion; he had no clue of what was happening inside her mind.

"It's just what?" She said simply in frustration ready for his criticism on her clothes.

"It looks really good on you." He said simply, blushing a little but laughing as well. Levy stood there frozen for a moment before she could comprehend what he had just said. So he liked it? Levy began to feel like an idiot at all of her previous anxieties. She really needed to get her thoughts into check. Of course she didn't care for what Gajeel thought and she shouldn't so there was no need to fret. He thought it looked good so there was nothing to panic over. But she soon took that the wrong way again; he thought she looked good in it. Gajeel just complimented her. What was she supposed to do now? Usually when a guy said she looked nice it would be some creepy guy that she would just ignore, or Jet and Droy completely gawking over her and they did that pretty often so she just laughed happily. But she couldn't do either to Gajeel.

"Uh. T-thank you." She stuttered, feeling like slapping herself in the face for sounding so unnatural. Levy wanted this situation to be over with as soon as possible. Deciding that, that response was good enough she began to walk in the direction of the guild, presuming the iron dragon slayer would follow behind she didn't bother to look.

"No problem, I totally terrified you back there. That was hilarious." Gajeel laughed, as he walked behind her a little, speaking to the back of her petit figure. She could tell he was grinning with victory. Sometimes she was sick of the way Gajeel acted towards her; he wasn't like any other guy she had ever been close to. But Levy figured that was the whole reason why she decided to stick around with Gajeel and not try to break off their friendship. He was different, sometimes a nice different rather than a bad one. She tried not to think about what he did in the past, but sometimes just couldn't help it.

"Yeah so? Anyone would be scared if a giant frightening guy jumps out at you from behind a tree on a peaceful morning." She responded before she could let her thoughts trail any further from that. Her efforts to not think about _that _weren't about to be ruined now. She looked ahead at the now busier streets of Magnolia. The stalls were hectic as usual; mothers were walking around holding their children's hands while salesmen's voices were booming throughout the road. It might have been a nice walk if it weren't for the gloomy thoughts that were still present in her mind. Gajeel had caught up to her pace and was now walking alongside her not speaking. It was weird seeing Gajeel unaccompanied by Panther Lily, his exceed and Levy wandered of his whereabouts for a while.

"You think I'm scary?" Gajeel suddenly spoke, scaring Levy a little as it broke her train of thought. She pondered the question for a moment, realising earlier she might have offended him. For a moment she hadn't realised he would take offense so easily. For such a robust and hard personality calling him 'frightening' isn't the most insulting thing to be called.

"Well... no not really. But most people with one glance might. I didn't realise it was you at first before." She smiled reassuringly to him, finding his small insecurity cute. Levy hadn't seen him act like this before and found it surprising too.

"Oh, in that case that's fine. Anyway you packed for tomorrow Shrimp?" Gajeel said, acting like he hadn't just been a little worried about being scary to her. She chuckled at him; it was moments like that when he revealed a vulnerable side to him that Levy liked. To mostly everyone he was some emotionless man that beat everyone that looked at him to a pulp. But to Levy he was a guy that gave people that impression but to those who were close enough he'd show his softer side to them. If it were anyone other than her or Lily he most likely wouldn't have bothered asking whether she found him scary or not. Levy knew she had a different relationship with Gajeel than the others in the guild, the question was, what was that relationship?

"Nope! Planning on packing later on, but I want to find out about who we'll be fighting against or hunting down tomorrow, to get a rough idea of what kind of strength they have. But by looking at the information now; they've got three guilds coming to protect them as well as hunt down those threatening the council. They are either underestimating guilds or these guys are really strong." She crumpled up her face as she spoke; she was getting a little apprehensive for the next few weeks. It could be more dangerous than the Master had made it sound.

"Yeah, good idea. I wanted to find out some stuff too, be good to know if these bastards have a weakness." He grinned, punching his fist into his other hand's open palm. She giggled at his enthusiasm, she was glad that he was getting into the mission, he might not have fought to his full if he thought lightly of it.

They both reached the courtyard of the guild and stopped at the entrance side by side, taking in the atmosphere of their boisterous guild mates. Levy immediately spotted Lucy standing by Max's counter where he was selling Fairy Tail merchandise. It didn't look like she was buying anything though. Levy looked back at Gajeel and found him looking right at her. She blushed, realising he must have been watching her.

"Uh, I'm going to go find the Master and ask him about the mission, you coming?" She smiled, trying to cover her embarrassment.

"Yeah, sure." Gajeel followed Levy inside the guild as they both looked for the master she was so conscious of his presence behind her, but tried to ignore it. Feeling uncomfortable around him wasn't usually what she felt. Levy looked down at her shoes as she walked through the guild, trying to gather herself together before she made a complete fool of herself by being embarrassed with Gajeel.

She looked up as she reached the bar, where typically Mirajane stood, cleaning some glasses with a white cloth. Mira looked as happy as usual, and greeted them both with a warm smile.

"Good morning Levy, Gajeel!" She said, still smiling at the two of them. Levy knew what she was thinking; Mira was always one for gossip, and putting people in the guild together in couples without them actually being couples. She was a hopeless romantic, and everyone knew it.

"Morning Mira!" Levy replied, pushing her previous anxieties away, getting her priorities straight she asked. "Have you seen Master anywhere?"

"Oh yes, I saw him around an hour ago upstairs in his office but I haven't seen him since. He might be still up there, he is quite worried for tomorrow, I think. He just seems a little stressed, how come you want to see him?" Mira looked at her then to Gajeel, looking a little troubled herself now.

"We just wanted to ask about who we are up against on this mission, Gajeel and I wanted to find out more about them. It would be good to know, and see if they have any weaknesses." She smiled reassuringly at Mirajane and looked at Gajeel. "Thanks Mira, we'll go look for him now."

Levy made her way upstairs and Gajeel followed closely behind. It wasn't that she hated being around him, she really enjoyed his company, and loved doing missions with him. It was just when her mind drifted towards liking him as more than just friends, it made her feel embarrassed, and the worst part is Gajeel never thought about that kind of thing. At least that's what Levy thought; it just seemed really unlikely that kind of thing ever crossed his mind. She glided her hand over the banister on the stairs, and looked back at Gajeel, who was looking right back at her. The solid script mage snapped her head back around and blushed. _He was looking at me again._

They got to the Master's office and stood outside. Levy knocked gently on the door, while Gajeel stood beside her. "Uhm, Master?"

For a moment they waited for any movement in the room, but heard nothing. Levy and Gajeel exchanged glances in confusion. "Old man?" Gajeel asked.

"Oh, brats. Come in." Master spoke faintly from the other side of the door, and Levy looked at Gajeel with concern. He nodded for her to go in. They pushed the door open, and first saw their small master Makarov sitting behind his desk in concentration. Deep creases were on his forehead as he looked at a document on his desk. He didn't look up to acknowledge them, but his eyebrows furrowed further.

"Uhm, Master. We're sorry to disturb you bu-" She began, but was cut off by Master.

"Its fine Levy, what is it that you want?" He said, giving them a glance up for a second.

"Oh well, it's about tomorrow. We were wondering who this threat actually is? And just how strong are they?" An awkward silence hung in the room as she finished speaking, waiting for their Master to respond. His old face looked up at both Gajeel and Levy before he spoke.

"I thought someone would ask at some point, the council didn't tell me much because they don't know much about them either. Apparently it's not even a dark guild, more of a dark organisation really. They don't have a name, but they've been forming in secret a group to overthrow the council. Someone found out that they were going to try and capture and kill the council members and destroy the building. Goodness knows what their plan is from there on." He looked at Gajeel in all seriousness. Levy could tell he was worried, which made her worry too. A dark organisation? What does this mean for the guild?

This meant they could be in serious danger, and Levy had to find out more.

"A dark organisation huh?" Gajeel smirked at the challenge. "Should be a good test of strength then."

Levy rolled her eyes at his stubborn nature and bowed to the master. "Thank you, Master. I'm going to try and find out more for everyone." She smiled, trying to comfort the uneasy Master. He nodded in return and Levy made her way past the tall dragon slayer to go out, with him closely behind.

They made their way back downstairs, both thinking on the information their master had given them. Levy wondered if Gajeel was ever scared of his enemies, or if he ever cared so much for his guild mates, he'd do anything for them. She knew he was a good guy, but just how much did he value everyone in the guild? She frowned at herself for doubting him, Levy was positive he'd do pretty much anything for his fellow guild members.

"What're you makin' a face for shrimp?"She looked at Gajeel to answer his question with lie prepared to reply to him with. But she looked at his face, he was concerned. He wanted to know why she wasn't smiling. That very thought made her smile.

"To be brutally honest, I'm just thinking about how you've changed so much." She smiled wider this time, glad she told him the truth. Usually she lied about her thoughts, she knew it was bad that she thought such bad things that she had to lie about them. But this time it was enough to change her words a little more to make it acceptable to say. Gajeel smiled a little at her response.

"Is that for good or bad?" He grinned teasingly, trying to get an annoyed response from Levy. She knew  
that he was wanting her to admit she was thinking of him, and he got exactly like he wanted her too. Her face was one with annoyance in it.

"Good of course you idiot." Levy almost shouted. He grinned with satisfaction from her answer, but it was the truth, she truly believed he had changed for the good, and would never go back to that kind of life. She put her anger behind her and forgave him, he was a good person.

_**Thanks for waiting everyone, I hope it wasn't much of a long wait. I appreciate everyone who is reading my story and I promise I'll update sooner. Please feel free to leave a review and I hope this story is going alright! Of course I'll make the story more romantic with those 'awh' moments in it! **_


	3. A true bookworm

He watched her, just as he had been the past hour. Gajeel couldn't comprehend how she could sit there, in one space and just read. The blue haired mage didn't even stop for breaks, she just sat and read. He watched her eyes, pale green eyes as they moved rapidly left and right in such a hurry. The only time she ever stopped was to take notes on vital information – or have a small look back to Gajeel.

They were sitting in a local library, as Levy had already informed Gajeel that the Guild's library didn't actually hold any data on any unnamed dark organisations. They sat in a small library; it was a little eerie as well as suspicious to Gajeel. It was quite dim, and it the smell was just of damp carpet. However, apparently Levy visited the place a lot, and the owner was friendly. People rarely came to the small place, because they saw what Gajeel did, and took it upon themselves to leave and never return to such a horrid looking place. The both sat next to each other, with around 17 books in piles around the small solid script mage, as well as the large red one she was reading. Her reading glasses were perched on the end of her small nose, still reading at an immensely fast pace.

Gajeel jumped a little as Levy gasped at something unknown to him, she grabbed her white quill and began writing something down quickly.

"What is it?" He asked quietly, desperate to find out any vital information about the enemies they would be facing tomorrow. She carried on writing something down, before laying the quill back down again to look back at the confused dragon slayer.

"This isn't going to be easy..." Was all she said before laying her back against the chair in exhaustion, she looked so worried, and all Gajeel could think of was ways to console her – as well a_s _quickly getting rid of the thoughts of hugging her petit figure. He wondered what she had actually discovered about this organisation anyways.

"What do you mean by that?" He wondered, looking at the now slumped Levy. She was clearly thinking whatever it was over in her head, looking for some possible way to sort it out, but Gajeel was anxious to find out more about their enemy. Levy straightened herself back up, getting herself ready to answer Gajeel. She faced him, and for a second looked away.

"Well, it's not about this dark organisation exactly, more them in general really." She stopped, still fretting over it.

"So what have you found shrimp?" He asked, knowing calling her by her usual nickname only used by him would lighten the mood a little. She rolled her eyes and smirked at him in response.

"Well, there is a reason they aren't dark guilds, and are just known as dark organisations. They aren't actually wizards, well sort of. It is a group of mages, and non mages. Those with no magical power are using dark magical objects as their powers, one bought from black markets and smugglers. They don't create guilds, to stay hidden. They only want to be discovered when they attack, but after they attack that is either, depending on whether they win or not either disband or create an official dark guild." Levy took a breath as she let Gajeel take in what she had just said. He didn't show any shock to the news, just as he did with many other things, even though inside he was shell shocked. The iron dragon slayer had no idea that organisations like that existed. Even being part of Phantom Lord, no one had ever mentioned dark organisations before. He nodded to Levy to continue.

"Well, there is one more advantage these organisations have. Number. Their numbers are much larger than guilds; even the largest of guilds don't have a number near theirs. That will be the reason they're calling out three guilds, and not just us." There Gajeel allowed himself to be shocked on the outside, his eyes widened, and he stared at the desk where the various coloured books were stacked on top of another. There was really that many? The amount of three whole guilds equalled to just one dark organisation? This was getting ridiculous...

"This is serious isn't it?" Gajeel said quietly, not wanting to worry the small mage too much. She simply nodded back and they both sat in silence. Both thinking. Gajeel decided there and then, it was, as well as defeating these bastards, his mission to protect Levy. These guys sounded too dangerous, and he honestly didn't believe her two best friends would be enough to keep her safe. As much as he believed in her strength, he would never forgive himself for letting anything happen to her.

"Hey Gajeel, where's Lily?" Levy said; equally quiet as Gajeel was before. He had forgotten that his partner wanted to go train by himself; Gajeel offered to go with him of course but for an unknown reason denied him coming along and told him to just have a fun day with Levy. Gajeel's exceed confused him sometimes, but that's what gave him the great idea to scare the living shit out of Levy that morning.

"Oh just training alone, not sure where though" Levy nodded, looking a bit confused – probably wondering why Gajeel didn't go with him. She grabbed another book from one of the piles and began reading again, the warm yellow magic circle appeared between her and the book and her eyes returned to the rapid left to right action again.

He laid his head on his arms and took Levy's transfixed state as an opportunity to admire her, he didn't like to admit it, but he loved watching her. The way her blue hair fell across her forehead and the way she was so in love with her reading. She looked completely in love with the books she read, and the information it held. Personally he had never really had a fondness for books but Levy didn't really seem to mind that he didn't share that love, but he couldn't help but want to be a part of that just to enjoy it with her. Gajeel let himself have this one, a moment to enjoy the beautiful, small and astonishingly intelligent mage.

He looked at her for awhile until Levy had just finished reading her third book; those glasses were pretty useful at a time like this. She wrote some things down and before even looking to Gajeel she copied his position and brought her hands onto the desk and rested her head on them. It was only then she noticed Gajeel was watching her, and had been for a while. She blushed at the realisation. He didn't bother to stop though, he wasn't sure why but today he didn't really care, and really didn't have the energy at the time to act embarrassed.

"Gajeel?" Levy asked suddenly, looking at Gajeel seriously now. He sat upright, looking puzzled.

"What is it bookworm?" He smiled, showing his sharp fang-like teeth, knowing she must have been on edge he tried to act nonchalant.

"Do you think we'll be able to take these guys on, and somehow come out of this alright?" Her thin blue eyebrows furrowed, she was seriously concerned. Gajeel considered it for a moment. He had confidence in his guild, they had people like the Salamander, Erza, the stripper and even blondie was really strong. Plus people like Laxus and Mirajane. They had some tough fighters in their guild, so he was quite reassured that they would be fine. Even Levy was strong enough to manage, but he knew he would be with her the whole way – so she was never going to come to any harm anyways.

"Yeah, 'course. We're fairy tail mages' after all, right?" He laughed slightly, doing his best to comfort the blue haired mage. He was hopeless when it came to expressing feelings, or helping others with theirs. Gajeel was more of a man to solve a problem with the strength of his fists and iron clubs than with comforting words. Levy nodded and smiled, thank goodness.

"So did you find any weaknesses for them?" Gajeel asked, remembering what they'd came there in the first place.

"Oh, well there is one thing." Levy began, picking up one of the books on her left. She flicked through it until she found the page she appeared to be looking for, she pointed to a small paragraph. "This is all I could find, considering weaknesses. These dark organisations aren't actually that strategic. In other words, they don't plan. All they really do is gather more men, their large scales make it harder to communicate – therefore they don't really plan. All they consider is where they attack and when, no special strategy or anything." She looked to Gajeel as he processed what she had just told him.

No strategy, interesting. If they devised an unexpected plan then this dark organisation would most definitely not planned for anything peculiar. This might be the only advantage they have, apart from figuring out their physical disadvantages when they get to the point of fighting them anyways...

"We should probably head back to the guild now, it's getting late." Gajeel said bluntly, Levy just nodded in response as he helped her put the books back onto the shelves. She took the notes she had made and hugged them close to her chest. This would be the most important mission the whole guild had been a part of. They would have to make a lot of effort to win this.

They both headed out of the dark library, both taking a large breath of fresh air – grateful for some air that didn't smell like damp carpet and mould. It was a comfortably silent walk to the guild, with the occasional glance towards each other. Before they arrived to the guild they had presumed everyone would be feeling down, or too busy at home preparing for a long mission. But as they both reached the entrance for the second time that day, they couldn't have been more wrong.

The whole guild bustled liked a busy train station, everyone was there. All of them were up and moving around, no one took a moment to stop and rest. Some people were carrying large travel bags, Gajeel spotted Erza carrying a pile of swords hooked in her opening arms across the guild looking determined as ever. Just what was going on? Gajeel looked to Levy on his right for answers but she looked just as confused as he was. Before he could ask someone just what was happening - the answer came to him instead. In the form of a hurried, anxious blonde cheerleader.

"Levy-Chan! I've been looking for you everywhere! Where have you been? Wait, no time! We're leaving in two hours instead of tomorrow!" Lucy practically squealed to her best friend, blatantly not prepared for anything that was happening. Gajeel only shrugged it off, he didn't really care. He had already packed, and all he would have to do was get Lily. Nothing like Levy however.

"WHAT? Oh god Lu-Chan! I haven't packed a thing! And I have so many things to look for and take with me! I have to go!" She waved goodbye to Lucy and ran off away from the guild to Fairy Hills. She got around a metre away before turning around again and waving goodbye to Gajeel too.

"Wow, she's in a rush." Lucy said to Gajeel as she watched the solid script mage run off into the distance. After she left their sight Lucy sighed happily. "Have a fun day with Levy-Chan?" She smiled deviously, looking shockingly similar to a detective interviewing a criminal with a curious look in her eye.

"What's it got to do with you Blondie? We just sat in a library most of the day anyway." Gajeel stuck to his usual 'not bothered' nature. That was most comfortable for him anyways. The celestial spirit mage looked slightly offended but didn't let it bother her for long as she seemed to be on a mission.

"Oh really? And what were you doing?" She looked _really _curious now.

"Reading dumbass, that's what you do in libraries." Gajeel was getting really pissed off, he just wanted to go home and get away from the cheerleader.

"I didn't realise you liked reading..." Lucy just kept smiling, which was really making him annoyed.

"I don't."

"Then how come you went to the library with her?" Now that question really ticked him off. He hated how people presumed he had an interest in her just because he hung out with her. Even though, he actually did have an interest in her... it still annoyed him.

"We were finding out more about these guys we're facing, that's it. Now quit asking me questions, you're pissing me off." He turned away from Lucy admittedly a little bit embarrassed. No one had ever asked him stuff like that, even Panther Lily knew when to quit. But being questioned by Levy's best friend was... scary. It made him realise that maybe he was too friendly with her.

He left it at that, knowing to stop himself whenever his thoughts got too much to his disliking. The iron dragon slayer shuffled his feet across the ground as he made his way home – already missing his small bluenette friend's company. It was getting later now and fewer people walked by, he was desperately trying not to think about her and he hated himself for becoming so soft.

Gajeel was about to turn a corner before a lit up sign caught his eyes. Fairy Hills. It's lettering was arched over an entrance to the girls of Fairy Tail's dorm. It was always looking so neat and pristine. He walked closer to the sign looking up at it, not realising he was getting closer. The only thought that crossed his mind was that _Levy _lived there.

He knew he shouldn't have done but he ignored any restrictions he had and walked to the front door of the building, debating whether or not to go in. If he went it he could go see Levy, his friend. Maybe even help her pack a few books – harmless things... Or he could turn around, go home and get all of his things including Lily and just meet her later. But he physically couldn't. Being so close to her and not doing anything about it wasn't an option. He liked being with her... he lov-

Gajeel opened the clear glass door to Fairy Hills and it made a slight squeak from the hinges. He stepped inside onto the wooden floor. He didn't bother to tread carefully as usual, as he knew everyone including Erza were all at the guild i.e. no one to kick him out for being a guy in a girl's dorm. He walked straight towards Levy's room and stopped outside her door. No big deal it's just Levy. Why was he thinking like this now? He knocked on her door and came out more violently than he would've liked. However, there was no answer. He knocked again but he was still left in a numbing silence.

"Shrimp, you in there?" Gajeel shouted, thinking she might have fallen asleep, if she had she would have to wake up at some point, they didn't have a lot of time. But there was still no response, and now he was starting to get worried. "Levy?" He shouted a little louder this time in desperation to hear her respond.

"Y-you called me Levy." A familiar voice came from the end of the hallway. Gajeel turned in a fighting stance as the sudden voice scared him. But he was wrong. A small blue haired mage stood at the end of the hallway, wearing a bath towel and another wrapped around her head. She was blushing from what Gajeel could see, and the loose strands of wet blue hair that had escaped from the towel clung to her face. Gajeel couldn't help but just take her in; she was just so... beautiful.

"Ugh, yeah. I called you Levy." Gajeel answered awkwardly not sure what to do except look everywhere else other than her, if he did he knew he wouldn't be able to stop staring.

"That's rare, h-how come you're here anyway?" He could feel her getting closer to him, and he couldn't help but go into a panic mode. Even the bookworm sounded a little on edge.

"Oh, uhm... just thought you might need a hand. You know, books are heavy 'n' stuff..." God, did he hate himself right now.

" Oh thank you, in that case give me a second and I'll tell you what books I need." She left it at that and opened the door to her room, which was full of books as usual. Her room to Gajeel was just another library but with a bed and a small kitchen. So in other words, it was a strange library. She left him in the centre of the room as she went into her bedroom, most likely to get some clothes on – to Gajeel's relief.

He looked through the book titles on a shelf that was level to his eyes, nothing particularly eye catching; 25 various scripts and their meaning, The princess and her saviour, The faraway tree, Solid Script spells and guides, Magnolia History, The girl and the Dragon... that one looked interesting. Levy returned smiling, clearly more comfortable, and to his liking in her usual clothes.

"Hey bookworm, what's this about?" He asked picking 'The girl and the dragon' from the shelf and showing it to her. Unpredictably she snatched the book from his hand and hugged it close to her while blushing more furiously than before.

"N-nothing! It – it's just a book." She walked over to another bookshelf and put it away and stayed facing the bookshelf. Gajeel just looked at her bewildered and shrugged his shoulders.

"It's fine, forget I asked! Jeez." He looked around the room again, looking for something else to talk about and break the uncomfortable silence. "So are we packing shit or what?"

"Oh, uh yeah. Excuse me for a second." Levy spoke quietly, going into her room and coming back with a large suitcase he hadn't ever seen before. Perhaps they _would_ be there for a long time, maybe he should have packed more than a few t shirts, jeans a bag of iron blocks and boxers. "Could you grab me those three books on the top of that bookcase please?" She pointed to a white bookcase that had books of all different colours stood next to each other, as well as some stacks on the top. Gajeel nodded and reached up to grab them and proceeded to toss them into the bag.

"Hey don't just throw them like that! They're precious!" She shouted annoyed.

"So which ones aren't precious then?"

"All of them are precious to me!"

"You're weird."

"Well you eat iron."

"Your room is a library!"

"At least I have eyebrows!"

"..." He couldn't think of anything to say back to her, but just laughed instead.

"What?!" Levy said, getting as angry as she could which wasn't very angry when it came to Gajeel.

"You're funny." He continued laughing, showing his sharp dragon-like teeth. Levy eventually gave in and began laughing with him. For the rest of the night they packed Levy's notes and books as well as clothes. He helped her carry the heavy bags to the guild where they met Lily who had already been informed by Natsu and Happy that they were leaving tonight, followed by a half hearted apology from Gajeel. He wasn't so sorry for spending that time with Levy instead of going home.

The whole guild walked to the train station together, with Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray and Wendy as well as Happy and Charle in the front while the rest of the guild followed behind. Gajeel walked with Levy by his side, and Lily hugged close in her arms. He continued to carry his own bag as well as Levy's all the way to the train station despite her protest. She couldn't manage lifting it off of the ground, never mind carrying it. Finally the whole guild managed to get to the station with tickets to Era – the home of the magic council.

_**Thank you all for waiting and here is a new chapter! I really hope you can stay and wait till I finish this! I'm really loving writing this and have some good ideas in mind for the story which I'll start writing a.s.a.p! Feel free to leave ideas in reviews! Thank you! ^_^ **_


	4. A turn of events

**A turn of Events.**

**Chapter 4**

Gajeel sat down beside the bluenette on the train and his small exceed friend jumped up onto her lap. She held him close on her lap as he settled himself down; Gajeel just chuckled at his friend as he made himself comfy in his own seat. Bisca had informed them that apparently the journey from Magnolia to Era was going to be a day or so. Bisca and Alzack sat opposite them and were quite on edge, they had left Asuka with a friend and were already worried for her, Levy found it sweet how much they took her into consideration – ever since they got back from Tenroujima she had noticed a large change in them.

Levy looked around as the rest of the guild settled in to their mahogany booths. Lucy and a already motion sick Natsu sat in the seats behind them with Erza and Gray with the exceeds flying above their heads. It took around 10 minutes for the whole guild to quieten down and by that time Lily had already fallen asleep in Levy's arms. Which was only expected from the training he had done that day. She was feeling tired herself, even though she hadn't done much but read, she felt exhausted.

Earlier she informed their Master on what she had found out which quickly spread across the guild, she couldn't have been gladder to have helped out a little. The more information they knew the more of an advantage they could have. Gajeel seemed as fired up as ever for fighting, as well as the rest of the guild. Levy chuckled as she watched everyone buzz for the mission; it was so nice to see everyone excited. Although she was still feeling anxious about it all.

The train set off and so began their long journey off to Era. Gajeel stayed unusually quiet while Levy chatted with Bisca for a while and admired one of her new guns that she had recently bought, it had a special effect on the bullets it shot where they exploded a nauseating gas when they hit the person. She had read about them in books and found the engravements on the metal side of it astonishingly beautiful. Not so much the way of knocking someone out.

"What's wrong Gajeel, you seem quiet." Levy asked, noticing his lack of effort to join in the conversation.

"Nothing." Gajeel said plainly, he wasn't one to say what was on his mind; at least not when other people were around. She gave him a sympathetic look but he just looked away, it kind of hurt. But she shrugged it off and focused on the mission for a while.

It got around 1.20 in the morning when most of the guild were asleep in their cabins, Bisca and Alzack had left at midnight and Gajeel followed not short after with Pantherlily. After that most of the guild apart from Makarov, Gray and Levy were asleep. Even though she felt tired she couldn't seem to sleep, and didn't feel the need to go to her cabin to just lie there awake. So she sat up with a book about dark mages and non magic users in her hand while Master and Gray talked.

"Levy, Gray and I are going to sleep now. You'll need your sleep soon so you go to bed soon, okay?" The master almost whispered as he stood by her booth, she just nodded and he and Gray left her alone in the carriage. The silence was nice to read in, as she put her legs across the two seats to be more comfortable. Slowly but eventually her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep with her book in her hands.

The next thing Levy felt was a pair of strong arms scoop under her back and hook under her legs, she fidgeted a little but the stranger shushed her softly. She grumbled sleepily, and slowly opened one eye to see whoever was carrying her. She widely opened her eyes in embarrassment as she saw her strong iron dragon slayer, Gajeel. He looked down at her face and just chuckled.

"Got something on my face shrimp?" He chuckled, teasing her.

"N-no." She tried to hide her face by getting closer to his chest but that was the wrong move, he seemed to hold her more tightly against him, as if protecting her. "W-why are you here?" She asked curious to know why he was most likely taking her to her cabin. Gajeel looked a little shocked and he looked away from her.

"Uh. You didn't go to bed, but you need proper sleep otherwise you won't be able to fight to your full potential tomorrow." She simply giggled a little at his kindness, she was glad he had some consideration for her after all. "What you laughing at?" He looked at her pissed off.

"Nothing! I can walk now you know?" She spoke into his chest, just noticing now he was wearing a plain black t shirt that suit him really well. He was warm, a cosy warm. She didn't really want to leave his arms, but thought it might be best. He didn't put her down however, he just walked through the carriage and used his back to push the door open and take Levy to her small cabin. The solid script mage couldn't help but blush at his behaviour.

They both reached her door and he slowly lowered her to the floor. They stood in silence in the thin hallway and Gajeel just looked at her, and she looked at him. Levy broke the silence and turned to her door and turned the handle, she looked back at Gajeel whose stare still remained on her.

"Thank you Gajeel." She thanked him with a smile and stepped inside her surprisingly cold room that made her spine shiver. Levy was about to close the door before Gajeel put his foot between the door and the frame.

"Uhm, Levy?" Gajeel said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Levy asked concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah ... uh never mind. See you in the mornin'." He turned to walk away but Levy summoned up the courage to do something she thought she could never do.

"Gajeel?" She whispered, and he turned around to face his small bookworm friend and she kissed him. With all her courage she stood on the tips of her toes getting as tall as she could to reach the cheek of Gajeel's handsome face and pecked his cheek with her soft lips. And the dragon slayer couldn't be more surprised, he stood their completely frozen on the spot and to Levy's amusement he blushed like a little girl.

"Thank you, see you in the morning." She said still quietly, Gajeel was still too shocked to move. It was funny how such a tough and robust man could be stilled by such a small gesture. Levy finally stepped into her room and closed the door smiling to herself for doing something she had always wanted to.

She listened from the other side of the door but didn't hear his footsteps, just his breath barely escaping his mouth. She smiled, what a fool. He acted so tough all the time, but seemed so shocked. Then she thought. What if he doesn't like me for it? Maybe it was going too far for a friendship relationship... she covered her mouth and rested her back against the door. What if this made their relationship really awkward and they couldn't hang out normally ever again?! All she could think of was the various bad consequences that it could have had on them.

"Night, Shrimp. You probably shouldn't sleep against the door, there is a bed in there you know?" His voice stopped her thoughts and she felt more relief than she ever had before. She could tell he was smiling, and thank goodness he was. Levy just mumbled a 'yes' before retreating into her room and into her bed. She crawled into the cold sheets and smiled as she couldn't help but be happy that he wasn't mad. It fell quiet and Gajeel eventually left to go to his own small room, and Levy couldn't have been more content, despite the trouble they would be facing in the morning; and the cold sheets that wrapped around her.

It was warm now, despite the cold she felt the night before. Already Levy could hear people in the hallway of the carriage walking around, getting past each other in the small space they had. She got up quickly in anticipation for the events of the mission infront of the guild. It would be nice to work as a team with the whole guild again. She quickly washed and got changed, feeling refreshed she head to the carriage where the majority of the guild were sat all talking to one another.

Levy took a seat where she sat yesterday and immediately noticed Gajeel's absence, however Lily sat in his spot looking oddly smug about something. And how it made her curious.

"Good Morning, Lily." Levy began.

"Morning Levy, have a nice sleep?" He asked, still smiling. Had he found some kiwi's or something?

"Uhm, yeah it was okay... why the smug face?" Levy said, realising she hadn't taken her book to bed last night and couldn't seem to find it and she began to look around her in a small panic.

"Oh nothing really. Nothing at all." Lily just looked as troublesome as before, but Levy left it at that as she couldn't be bothered to find out, it most likely would have been kiwi.

"Okay then... uh have you seen one of my books? It's a deep red colour, with black writing on the cover?" She asked Lily curiously, it was quite an expensive book to obtain. If she lost it, she'd really slap herself.

"Yes actually, Gajeel was up reading it early this morning." He nodded like he was giving her wise advice, she just looked at him in shock. Gajeel was reading? He never read books, he'd always said it was never his thing. But he was reading! She almost smiled at the fact he had voluntarily read a book himself, now it was her turn to be shocked.

"Really? That's shocking!" She said in surprise, Lily just chuckled at her response. But Gajeel wasn't happy. He stood by the booth looking at the small bookworm and his exceed listening.

"Oh yeah, and what's so shocking about it?" Gajeel stood there with a disapproving look on his iron studded face. Levy turned to look at him and was shocked, he looked... different. He wore a bandana across his forehead and a neutral brown shirt with a dark brown coat over it. He wore his usual black fingerless gloves and some dark blue jeans. She just dropped her mouth even further down. "What, seen a ghost shrimp?"

"N-no! I just... you don't like reading so I was just a little surprised." Levy said, trying to cover up her thoughts. All she could do was look at him, his new clothes, his soft cheek that she kissed only hours ago.

"Well you 'ain't wrong bookworm, it just looked interesting. It kinda was too." Gajeel just laughed at her in his usual 'gihi' and shoved Lily off of his seat. Who then proceeded to jump up into his usual position in Levy's arms. "Oh, right." Gajeel lifted himself up slightly and reached into the back pocket of his coat and grabbed her slightly crushed book, he noticed its state and looked at Levy.

"Uh sorry..." He passed it to her, and surprisingly Bisca and Alzack both chuckled at them. Levy and Gajeel in unison gave them glares.

"What's funny?" Gajeel asked quite violently to them both, clearly embarrassed.

"Hehe, nothing. Just you two are cute." Levy just looked at Gajeel, both blushing. Bisca and Alzack just turned to each other and laughed a little. Gajeel looked more pissed off at the pair than before.

"Shut it you two." Gajeel snapped at them more defensively than he should have, it surprised Levy who just looked out the window so as not to be a part of the drama. His eyes bored into her back, she felt him looking at her. After that the giggling stopped and it was silent in the booth for a while. And finally they reached Era.

With a large shout of relief from Natsu, the whole guild grabbed their bags and got off of the train at a small station. Levy took turns with Gajeel to glance at each other now and again, both feeling slightly awkward. The whole guild stopped at a large hotel, it _had _to be large considering the amount of members in their guild. Thankfully and to the Master's relief the council paid for their stay.

Gajeel despite the awkward atmosphere between the two carried Levy's bag for her. They all dropped off their luggage and made their way to the council's headquarters.

The large building was immense; the sheer size was daunting to anyone. The centre possessed a massive entrance was flanked by two large wings, as well as a large pyramid styled roof. They had two symmetrical towers either side of the building with two halo- like rings around the top points of the towers. Levy stood with the rest of her guild mates in the courtyard, all taking in the mass building in awe. Except for Makarov, who had most definitely been their too many times before considering the guild.

Surprisingly, there at the foot of the large doors stood the two other mysterious guilds – now come to light. The guild, Mermaid Heel and... Sabertooth? The fairy tail mages hadn't seen the Sabertooth mages since the grand magic games, and the whole dragon fiasco. Sting and Rogue looked happy to see them all and Yukino stood with them, smiling slightly at them. The whole of the guild was there this time, as well as Mermaid Heel, Kagura smiled to Erza with Millianna not far behind to run to Erza with open arms – breaking the ice for everyone.

"Er-chan!" She shouted running towards the requip mage, her black cape almost flying off at the speed she ran to her. After that everyone began talking, Sting almost immediately ran to Natsu asking of what was occurring in the guild, and everyone began to talk about the mission they would all face. Levy stood next to Gajeel feeling a little uncomfortable as she had never talked to any of the members of either guild. She looked up to Gajeel pleadingly for comfort, forgetting his outburst before; in her mind it wasn't something to be so mad about.

"Gajeel?" She asked quietly as they stood out of the now mixed crowd, with random guild marks coming into sight, there bright colours were eye catching. It was nice they could talk like this to those they were facing only a mere two months or so.

"Don't worry Shrimp, I won't leave ya." He looked at her earnestly, it comforted her. "Here follow me." She nodded to him and followed his large bundle of hair in the crowd, almost wanting to grip onto it to not get lost in the crowd of people. He stopped abruptly and she bumped into his back. Gajeel just turned around and laughed at her. Levy just ignored him and came to stand next to him where they faced a man with black hair that fell over the right side of his face, his eyes were a similar red to Gajeel's and he wore an ominous black cloak, but looked surprisingly content.

"This is Rogue Cheney." Gajeel simply stated. From that Levy instantly remembered the man, and the fight he and Gajeel had at the Grand Magic games. He was the Shadow Dragon slayer, he had an exceed just like Gajeel and the other dragon slayers, Frosch, the exceed that dressed in a frog suit.

"Nice to meet you." Levy smiled at Rogue politely, she realised Gajeel had an odd friendship with the man, as from her knowledge Rogue used to look up to Gajeel when he was younger.

"Likewise, is this your girlfriend Gajeel?" Rogue asked with an annoying innocence. Gajeel just widened his eyes and looked at Levy, and she looked just as stuck as he was. They weren't in that kind of relationship... so why were they hesitant on what to call it? "Never mind, I can see that's a topic you feel uncomfortable talking about..." Rogue said sensing the atmosphere.

"Uh... Yeah. This is Levy McGarden, and my exceed partner is somewhere around here, that's Lily." Gajeel said awkwardly, looking at anywhere other than Rogue and Levy. Rogue just smiled, keeping his calm, it was weird knowing she had watched them battle so intensely against each other with such strength. Gajeel and Rogue continued to talk about how their guilds had gotten on since the games, and Levy was happy to hear Yukino was doing well there. The crowd came to silence as a large creak came from the front doors to the council, everyone looked expecting someone to greet them through the doors but no one was there.

"Let's begin, shall we?" A high pitched voice came from inside, which perplexed the majority of the three guilds. Everyone looked around for the voice but saw no one. Then, a slim figure jumped down from the ceiling inside the council hall and walked slowly towards the three gathered guilds. He didn't look like a member of the council to them...

"We've... been expecting you." The man's face became clearer, he had blonde hair that stuck up like spikes all over his head, his eyes were an icy blue and he stood there with a fighting stance. Gajeel stood infront of Levy with his arms infront of her... protecting her. Makarov was the one to speak first.

"Who are you?"

"Well we... are your worst nightmare." The man corrected the Master with a chuckle and soon proved him wrong as what looked like hundreds of mages came flooding down the stairs and all around them all ecstatic for a fight. This was bad, they had already captured the council! The dark organisation were here... they were going to battle now. A few larger more muscular men and two tall women came to the entrance of the doorway with people slung over their shoulders. _The council members._

Levy heard Gajeel curse under his breath, and all she wanted to do was bury herself into his warmth and escape, but she knew she would fight with the rest of her comrades, with Gajeel. This was a mission after all, and she wouldn't let it fail.

_**Oooo a turn of events for Fairy Tail! Hehe I had so much fun writing this, especially towards the end of the chapter! I really like this idea, and am really planning on making the plot a lot thicker! Hopefully this was more than a little romance for you all, and I will get on writing the next chapter right away! Thanks for reading and don't forget to review it! **_

_**Also thank you to Cat Empress for being my main supporter right now, I tried to get this one done quick to not make you wait so long! Thanks for enjoying my story! ^_^ **_


	5. The battle begins

**And so the battle begins.**

**Chapter 5**

Before anyone could reach the council members, all of the people carrying the unconscious members grabbed onto a large man in the centre of them and to everyone's surprise disappeared like dust onto the ground. And like that they were gone and the battle was about to start.

Gajeel knew he would watch over Levy, regardless of whatever happened. He would protect her, with his life. There wasn't even time to think of what those thoughts meant because it was time to fight now. He looked back at his small friend with his arms still outstretched infront of her, she seemed scared. He hated it. Gajeel kept his eyes on the enemies and Makarov seemed to be talking to one of the members about something, but he couldn't make it out.

"Gajeel." A deep voice came from the ground, Gajeel looked down to see his exceed, Lily. He let out a large sigh in relief that he was safe. Gajeel only nodded to him, they had nothing else to discuss... they had already spoken enough on the train the other evening.

**The previous night**

"Where have you been?" Lily asked as Gajeel slumped onto his bed, waking up the sleeping black cat. Gajeel all too happily actually responded, despite the hour in the morning.

"Just talking to Bookworm." Gajeel said almost grinning, he couldn't help it. After all this time, Levy showed more than just small blushes as hints towards her liking Gajeel. She _kissed_ him! Even though he didn't like admitting it, he did now and again to himself talk about how much he liked her. Gajeel honestly enjoyed being in her company and to see her talk so passionately about the things she loved. As well as the reaction he gained whenever teasing her.

"Oh, really? Why now?" Lily asked with a curious smile, he was fully aware of the kind of relationship Gajeel and Levy had, and Lily was the only one he ever talked to about it. Even if he was short on details, he knew full well he wouldn't have spoken those words to another person.

"I just had a feelin' she wouldn't have gone to sleep, that shrimp is more stubborn than I am sometimes!" Gajeel was still smiling; Lily knew there was something more than that. However the iron dragon slayer knew he couldn't tell something like that. He wouldn't hear the end of it from Lily until they ended up getting married.

"Right, so you just talked in the carriage? Is she still there now?" Gajeel looked a little more serious now, getting ticked off by his nosy exceeds questions.

"No, I took her to her cabin..." Gajeel cursed himself, knowing that was pretty much worse than telling him Levy kissed his cheek. He grinned again remembering that fact. Gajeel remembered carrying her small light body through the small hallways; he never wanted to put her down. Just hold her closer, it might not have meant anything if it was someone else, but this was Levy. A tired, beautiful, blue haired bookworm in his arms and he couldn't resist having that one moment for himself.

"Ah, I see. So d-" Pantherlily started but was cut off.

"No more questions' cat, I'm going to sleep." He said pulling the sheets over him not wanting to discuss it any further. They both sat in silence for a few minutes until Gajeel remembered something.

"Lily, will you help me?" He whispered.

"With what?" The exceed grumbled.

"To protect her."

"I was already planning on it." Lily smiled in the darkness at Gajeel's concern for her, he had a weird way of showing he cared for her.

"Thanks." They both left it at that, they slept for hours and before long Gajeel got up and walked around yet again, he walked past Levy's room and hung there for a few moments before he picked up her smell, she was safe. He sighed with relief and went to the empty carriage and sat where they were that day.

Gajeel spotted one of Levy's books face down on the floor that she must have dropped. The dragon slayer picked it up inspecting the title. 'Magic and non-magical users'. It seemed more interesting than he would've liked to admit. He took a seat and began to read Levy's book and eventually went back to his cabin still reading. The information it contained was really useful, and by the break of dawn he finished the book completely.

Not soon after, Lily woke up and looked obnoxiously smug. Gajeel just snarled at him but the exceed simply chuckled and then left to go to the main carriage. Gajeel was just relieved he had agreed to protect Levy, he couldn't give a crap about his smug face.

**Now**

The small exceed joined Gajeel by his side and proceeded to transform into his superior form. Somewhere across the crowd the sound of Erza's requip could be heard, and the flaming fists of Natsu being punched together in preparation for the fight to begin. Sting just chuckled as he made his way to the front of the gathered guilds.

"You've chosen the wrong day to fight..." The dark organisation completely disregarded his threat and another man came into view and spat on the ground with a disgusted look on his face.

"Who're you underestimating Kid?" He simply chuckled and slowly went to grab something to his back. He brought it forward to reveal a golden shining gun, he swung it around his finger just chuckling. Guns magic.

"Kid?" Sting just laughed back at him. "If that's the case, then you're about to get beaten up by a bunch of kids. I like that, it's funnier that way." Gajeel chuckled with him, that is pretty embarrassing. However the man didn't think that is was. The stranger looked more pissed off than before, he stilled his swirling pistol and cocked it. Suddenly Bisca shouted from beside Gajeel and Levy.

"Watch out! That gun's bullets explode on impact!" She shouted warning the guilds.

"Oh? Smart girl aren't we? I like you..." He gave Bisca a perverted smile, Gajeel could imagine how pissed off that made Alzack, if someone had smiled like that at Levy he would flip... but they aren't married with a child... _Shut up Gajeel._

A gunshot made everyone jump out of their skin, the pervert sank to the floor holding his side. Everyone looked to Alzack who actually had his gun out, however it was Bisca who had made the shot. Smoke came swirling into the sky from the end of her gun, she hadn't used her newly bought gun – probably saving it until later. She looked at him as if to say 'Thanks anyway' but she looked to the man now bleeding on the floor.

"Well I don't like you." She snarled back at him, Gajeel was impressed at her ability to have a backbone. She must have been some badass back in the day. However that kicked it all off. A move had been made which meant a signal for them to start the fight. The all leapt forwards, including Gajeel with Lily alongside him and Levy just behind. The dark organisation clashed with Fairy Tail, Sabertooth and Mermaid Heel. Natsu immediately made a gap in the crowd of people by using dragon slayer's roar.

Gajeel ran forward entering the building, swiping a few people away by extending his arm as an iron club. They all let out a breath as he winded them and they all fell to floor, regaining their breath. Smartly, Levy stood beside him and shouted.

"Solid Script, Water!" A large amount of water appeared above their heads; they looked up at the word 'water' hovering above their heads as it proceeded to drop onto them, right into their mouths. It took their breath away even more before they passed out from lack of oxygen. Gajeel looked at his blue haired friend impressed; she just smiled at him before they ran further into the building with the tall Pantherlily by their side, knocking people out just with one swing of his size changing sword.

By that time Kagura, Erza and Lucy as well as Rogue, Rufus and Gray were all inside the building fighting with all they had. Erza had her heaven's wheel armour on and was looking as determined as ever.

"Heaven's wheel! BLUMENBLATT!" The sound of swords flying through the air was echoing through the hall followed by cries of pain and men ricocheting off of the ground after being hit by her heavenly swords. Kagura was busy with using her ability to change gravity by making people be flattened to the floor, with so much force it broke the floor itself with their bodies. Lucy had summoned Virgo, the pink haired spirit. She stepped through the magic circle in her usual maid outfit and metal chains around her wrists.

"Punishment time, Hime?" Virgo typically asked, Lucy as usual responded no and asked her to get rid of the enemies. Virgo simply nodded and disappeared into the ground in an elegant spin, followed by a number of members of the dark organisation. In less than a matter of seconds she appeared from the ground again and disappeared back into the spirit world with an earnest thank you from Lucy.

The whole room was sent into a chill as Gray shot his ice lance forward; however there was mage there who appeared to use magic with glass. He brought up a wall of what seemed to be bulletproof glass that broke the ice in its path. Followed by Gray cursing under his breath.

Gajeel focused on what was infront of them, he used his iron dragon's roar and blew some of the men to the wall at the back of the hall, they fell to the floor but soon after got back up. Levy came forward again and summoned the word 'fire'.

However, a water mage came forward and drenched the word until the flames were out. He had the same magic as Juvia. Gajeel wasn't worried; he had sparred with that rain woman many times in Phantom Lord. The man wore a black open cloak with a turquoise tank top beneath it, he was lanky but his magic was strong. Gajeel could feel it.

"Water slicer!" He shouted, spreading his hands from the left side to the other, shooting a line of fast travelling water, there was one difference this time. The water was steaming, it was hot. Gajeel stood on his toes, getting ready to cover Levy.

"Water lock!"

"Eh?" Gajeel looked confused as the steaming water heading towards them dropped to the cold marble floor, and the man that was stood infront of them was now in a bubble of water. A woman had shouted that move. Juvia. Both Gajeel and Levy looked round to see the water mage standing beside them, concentrating on her water lock. He just grinned at her, she hadn't changed.

"Gajeel-kun, you move on. Juvia will handle this man, Juvia would like to see which water mage is better" Juvia looked at Gajeel for a split second before proceeding to battle the water mage. She was badass when she wanted to be! After that he ran off, with Levy and his exceed not far behind. It made him wonder why she wasn't being attached to the ice boy like usual, he hoped she hadn't given up – if that was possible because he knew Gray liked her too.

"Gajeel?" Levy asked running behind him.

"What is it shrimp?"

"There's still a lot of mages here, even outside. This might take a while." She ran behind him, working together to push on coming enemies aside. They both reached the stairs and stood on the third one up, looking out onto the hall. Everyone was engaged in battle, some people were teaming up against others, some were being wiped out by one of the stronger mages. Gajeel spotted Wendy being surrounded by some of the dark members. One had a dark smoking sphere in his hand, he made it bounce up and down in his hand like a ball. Before Gajeel could intervene to help the sky dragon slayer, she was already on it.

"Wing slash of the sky dragon!" Her small voice shouted, blowing the surrounding group to all ends of the large hall. It was surprising that the small girl who healed people could be so effective in battle, and was brought up by a dragon with dragon slaying magic. But he noticed something was wrong, the blue haired slayer was looking around frantically.

"Charle!?" She shouted, apparently her exceed was missing. Gajeel looked all around the hall to spot her small white cat being surrounded by 3 tall men, all with a cold hearted look in their eyes. One of them brought thorned vines from his hands and toyed Charle with them, scaring her. Gajeel nudged Levy and pointed to the cat, she gasped in concern for her friend.

"Help me out with your fire a sec would'ya?" He asked, wanting to make her feel useful. Gajeel knew she wasn't confident in herself. Levy nodded and summoned the word 'fire' infront of Gajeel. He moved to face the direction of the three men.

"Iron dragon's roar!" A swirl of iron came blasting from Gajeel's open mouth at an alarming speed, it combined with the fire laid out infront of him and swirled with the iron. It made the iron fragments hot from the ember as it blasted through the hall.

"Charle!" All the three men looked towards Levy who shouted the cat's name, but only saw the iron flying through the air, the white exceed took that to her advantage and flew out of the way and before they could do anything about it they were blasted with the hot shards of iron. Gajeel just grinned with his sharp teeth as Wendy found her friend again. However that brought more attention to Gajeel, Levy and Lily than wanted. Those who had just broken off a battle or had just finished one looked to the three and almost charged towards them.

"Crap." Was all Gajeel could say as countless numbers of people came through the hall towards the stairs. Before he could react, he spotted a flaming arrow coming from the other side of the hall and for the first time in his adult life he completely panicked. People were running towards him, and more importantly towards Levy, and now multiple arrows were on their way into their direction. Everything went into slow motion for the iron dragon slayer, and he didn't know how to control it.

Before his brain could process any of it, Levy was already on it. Before the arrows even got close she stood infront of the three, Gajeel could only look at her in shock. He thought she was sacrificing herself.

"Solid Script! Sheild!" The word 'shield' appeared in a large writing, and within that slow second it turned into a large translucent circle appeared from the word covering the three. The flaming arrows bounced off of the surface, and all Gajeel could do was look at her. She saved them. Gajeel wasn't protecting her, she was protecting him.

The arrows dropped to the ground and the shield dispersed into small blue sparkles. Levy smiled at Gajeel with relief but he was still transfixed. What was happening? Why was he breaking down in a situation like that? He felt Levy shake his arm and looked at her reassuring smile, Gajeel shook his head and focused. There wasn't any time to be thinking like that, he had to keep her safe and he knew she could handle herself too.

"Alright bastards, which one of you is first?" He shouted to the men only metres away, it made them run faster at him. Gajeel brought his fist forward and turned it into an iron sword, it was covered in metallic spikes. He sent the sword forward like an endless piece of iron, knocking all of those in it's way out. Some saw the attack and jumped up, dodging the deathly spikes and continued running.

"Gajeel!" Gajeel's attention was drawn to the now enlarged version of their master, Makarov. He was fighting to what seemed like a sand mage, and surprisingly seemed to have some trouble with him. "Take Levy, go..." He paused to throw his large fist down on top of the man, who held it up with shaking arms, trying not to be squashed. "Go find... one of the council members."

Gajeel only wanted to question him, why would he send them out in search for the council members? They were needed there right? But he knew he couldn't question him, it wasn't the time to sit down and question his decisions. Before Levy could do anything, he scooped her up from the ground and put her small body over his shoulder.

"Gajeel! Put me down!" She protested while weakly punching his back and kicking her legs in protest, it would be the easiest way to get them both out safely. He just ignored her mere taps and pushed his enemies out of the way, with his only goal to get outside.

"Lily, you comin'?" He shouted to his friend behind him, not looking back.

"I think I'll stay, I'm sure you two can handle it." He shouted back, battling someone with his sword, quite easily pushing them back. He only smiled as he battled, enjoying the challenge. With hesitation Gajeel made his way out, people tried to jump in front of him and stop him but still managed to hit them away, despite having a small woman on his shoulder too.

They made their way past their Master, and he only nodded to them while dealing a finishing blow on the man he was still battling. Despite his regular height, the Master was shear strength right down to the bone; he always managed to impress the iron dragon slayer. Levy still kicked and wailed but eventually gave in and just pouted while being carried on his strong shoulder. However one man seemed to have a problem with them leaving.

A man around Gajeel's height, perhaps a little taller stood a few metres in front of them. His almost black eyes stared at the two. His hair matched the black eyes; it was short and curled like a small afro. He wore a simple blue t shirt, and some black shorts that looked like velvet. Oddly, he didn't wear any shoes, but they didn't look like they'd taken damage at any point from being so bare.

"Where do you think you two are going?" He almost spat, he looked disgusted at them, this scum thought he was better than them. Gajeel crouched down and put Levy softly back onto the floor, she looked alarmed by the man standing there. The dragon slayer ignored her panic, he'd beat this sucker up and get the hell outta there, with Levy safe as well. It might be better they go after one person instead of multiple. It would be easier to keep an eye on the shrimp. Gajeel looked at the man, and cracked his knuckles together.

"None of your business" He scoffed back, positioning himself into a fighting stance, the enemy only chuckled at him. His condescension was pissing Gajeel off, but then he noticed something. He couldn't sense any magic aura from him – none at all. He must be one of the non-magic users. His expectations from the man lowered, from Gajeel's experience in Edolas those who didn't have magic weren't very efficient in using it against those who could. Even if this guy had some sort of magical device, it wouldn't compare to his dragon slaying abilities that flowed naturally throughout his body.

"Fine, it's not like I'd let you go either way." Before Gajeel could even think of something to say back the man was in the air pulling fist back for the first punch, but it wasn't aimed at him. His eyes were set on Levy.

_**Ahh cliffhanger! I hate them too, sorry! Haha I just really wanted this Chapter up at somepoint, I'm on my Easter break now for two weeks so I have some free time. I tried to make this one good, and I thought I'd have a little flashback to include a little more GaLe. I am honestly enjoying writing this, and can't wait to progress it! I have so many different ideas I want to get written down and uploaded; so I'll be as quick as I can!**_

_**Again thank you to those leaving me reviews and favouriting as well as following the story! It means the world to me to have some feedback on my writing! Hehe until next chapter! ^_^**_


	6. Thank you for protecting me

**Chapter 6**

Levy couldn't even get a grasp on what was happening between the enemy and Gajeel, before she knew it he was off the ground with his large fist aiming straight for her face. Levy froze; her body went into panic, what script? What could she use? He got closer, but Gajeel made sure he wasn't a centimetre further. Before her, a second hand appeared – Gajeel's.

His gloved hand shot out infront of her and grabbed the fist infront of her, making the man go into shock. Levy watched as Gajeel pushed with all his strength, the man was forced to the ground with an unbelievable amount of power. The man's back cracked with its impact on the concrete floor; Levy cringed at the sound as he cried out in pain. Gajeel stood infront of Levy, all she could see was his thick mess of black hair with his arms out infront of her still protecting her.

He turned his head to look at Levy, his expression was softer as he looked to her small figure and he almost smiled to her.

"You okay?" He asked simply asked. Levy nodded meekly in response. Gajeel turned back to face the man still recovering on the floor. To their surprise he laughed at them, he smiled as he stood hunched over.

"Awh, what a shame. Couldn't even let me land one punch on her pretty little face?" He laughed, now standing up straight, Levy could hear the faint clicks of his spine going back into place. Gajeel almost snarled at the man, it almost scared Levy. This was becoming more serious, but she had confidence in him, her friend. The bookworm even had a small amount of confidence in her self – even if it was quite small.

"Bastard" Gajeel spat.

"How rude, can't you use better language in front of such a beautiful young woman – what a shame" The man still laughed almost cackled at him, Levy could almost see the dark aura that Gajeel was emitting.

"You don't even think about her! You understand me?" Gajeel growled, but before even giving the enemy a chance to respond he ran at him as fast as he could. Levy could only look on at the two, feeling helpless. He was putting so much effort in to defend her, not only to keep her alive but to keep her dignity as well. Levy might have only fully realised it there and then, but Gajeel was more than just a tough iron dragon slayer.

Gajeel had transformed one of his hands into a sharp iron spike, he used his other hand to grasp his short black curled hair. Levy couldn't sense any magic power from the man, so he had to be one of the guy's she had read about. The small bluenette began to brainstorm while they fought infront of her... if she could find the non-magic users weakness then she could help Gajeel. But she read so much – it was all a bit of a blur. She shook her small head in an attempt to clear her thoughts.

_Okay... non-magic users will if they are using magic always be carrying an item that allows them to have the ability to use that certain type of magic. It may be concealed as an item or by a lacrima... _

Levy looked at the man fighting Gajeel, she scanned his body... her very essence was focused on finding a small fragment of magic on his body but they were moving so fast. The man seemed to only use hand to hand combat, but defended well against his attacks even so... Levy got confused with Gajeel's massive amount of Magic; she focused hard on the man... where was it...

"Kyah!" Levy fell to the ground as someone pulled her feet from underneath her, she scraped her bare knees on the floor as well as the palms of her soft hands. She turned to look up at whoever had pushed her down, but she couldn't see anything – her vision was hazy.

It was like she had gotten up too fast from lying down, but this time it was permanent. Before she tried to figure out what to do she felt her body being pressed down by something, it was painful. Actually it was beyond painful, it was like every cell on her skin was being pricked by pain, and she couldn't see anything.

"Shrimp!" She heard Gajeel shout but it seemed so far away, after that she heard his small grunts in effort of a battle, and the cries of pain of the man from before. Everything around her seemed distant, and everything that was close to her was pain, it seemed like it was the only thing that _wanted _to come near her. It almost relieved the mage that at least something was close – although she hoped that Gajeel even though far away – was winning his battle.

"Levy!" The eyes that saw nothing widened, he called her Levy again. His gruff voice, the voice that belonged to the tough dragon slayer. The voice that called nicknames, who picked on her for her height and patted her on the head playfully like a small dog. The voice that belonged to _him. _Called her Levy.

Everything stopped. For Levy that is anyways. Why was she giving up so easily? No – she wasn't. Levy wouldn't let herself lose, she was more than that. Gajeel expected more than that, it was her time to kick her ass into gear before she let someone else walk over her like she was nothing. She clenched... every single muscle in her body that she controlled she clenched. It was her way of forcing away the pain, the small pin pricks of pain that echoed throughout her whole body. Her vision was still hazy, but she focused on getting rid of the pain. Slowly her world started turning again and she could finally hear those around her again.

"Eh? What's happening?" She heard a different man speak this time, presumably the man who put her in that position in the first place. She kept concentrating though, she thought of pushing the pain away, with everything in her she pushed the pain away. Levy eventually resorted to using her magical power to begin pushing _his_ back and away forever. Eventually she felt the pain rising and confused growls coming from above her. For a moment she sensed the man pulling his arm back in preparation to punch her further into the floor, but it stopped for a reason unknown to her closed eyes.

She pushed her energy outwards, she spread her magic throughout her whole body and let it force the pain covering her away. Her only thoughts were on projecting her magic to get rid of the pain, and thankfully she began to feel the pain lift.

"What the hell? How is this happening?!" The man started shouting in confusion, he was most likely now sensing his power wearing off of her. Levy almost smiled despite the pain, she was finally fighting back, without help. Levy knew her will was stronger than to let him win and give up so easily. She wouldn't make a fool of herself and she would make her comrades proud of her.

Eventually her vision began to clear and she could see the cloudy grey sky above her, as well as a large ugly head that covered half of it. The pain thankfully lifted completely and her sight was restored fully, but she didn't give him any opportunity to try it again. She made her best effort to get up as quickly as she could. The man only looked at the small mage in shock.

"What the fuck did you do?" The man shouted in her face, she twitched at his vulgar language. Levy was used to it from Gajeel but not from random strangers shouting abuse at her. But she ignored it, and instead took action.

"Solid Script Oil!" She shouted, and to her delight it the word 'oil' appeared right above the man's head dripping with hot black oil. The made the word drop into just oil around his feet, the man began to slip all over the place, flailing his arms about trying to balance but he inevitably fell to the ground covering himself in the black liquid. Levy held back a laugh as she watched him struggle to stand, before he could she had an idea. The solid script mage was essentially the one who controlled the properties of her solid script and so with that power she made the oil's particles come together as a solid, it solidified holding the man in place.

"Yes!" Levy shouted in victory, she had defeated him. Without giving up, with that battle over she felt more confident than she ever had before, and if felt great. Then it dawned on the small mage that she was missing someone. She turned around to see Gajeel standing over someone on the floor, with one hand extended out in the shape of an iron spike resting right under the man's chin. This someone being the man he was fighting with from before.

"Gajeel!" She shouted while sprinting towards him, he looked to her for a split second. He looked slightly relieved to see her face.

"You alright Shrimp? I saw something happen but I was a bit preoccupied with this bastard." Gajeel said, almost snarling at the man, Levy had never seen him have such a hatred for someone. What was the difference this time? Levy just nodded and watched Gajeel's face, she could tell he was deciding whether or not to kill him. He always had that conflict – she could see it in his face. The desire to end their life right there, but the comforting thing to her was that he never did.

The only reason he had considered that option for a second was because of Phantom Lord; they brought him up to not care and to not value and enemies life. It made Levy feel so bad for what he must have been through, but she knew he was healing gradually and she was doing her best to help him. The bluenette watched him pull the spike back into his regular hand and continue to knock the man out cold with one punch to the gut.

"Let's go." He stepped over the man, and kept walking in the opposite direction from Levy... he was upset. She didn't know why but he was upset, and angry by the sound of his voice. She didn't argue and stepped over the man as well, sprinting to catch up with the moody dragon slayer. Levy looked back on them all at the council hall; everyone was engaged in serious battle. Before they left her sight she whispered 'good luck' and with that disappeared into the woods with Gajeel.

Levy desperately wanted to ask Gajeel what was wrong, but didn't want him to take it out on her and regret it eventually. So she watched him for a while, to see if his face changed at all. It didn't.

"Gajeel? Should we go back to the hotel and grab our stuff?" Levy almost whispered, remembering all of their things left at the hotel. She only earned a slight nod off of him, and that was it. Levy couldn't help but become more curious about what had upset him so badly, she had a couple of guesses: one of them being that the man from earlier had said something that Gajeel didn't like.

They made it to the hotel; Levy left some of her books and put them into Lucy's bag to lose some weight. She hoped that her friend wouldn't mind, but she didn't feel like dumping her bag with Gajeel all the time. Gajeel lifted his small bag over his shoulders with ease and waited for her, it was only then when she looked up at him from her crouched position on the ground that she saw how battered up her was. He had a dark mark on the left side of his stomach where he was bleeding and his legs and arms had numerous cuts and bruises.

"Gajeel!" She almost shouted in concern.

"What!?" He shouted, looking annoyed at her sudden outburst.

"Why haven't you tended to your wounds?"

"Couldn't be arsed."

"Well you can't just stay like that!"

"You don't look so good yourself, so don't lecture me!" He looked down on her, scaring her a little. It made her feel smaller than she already was. But he had a good point, she looked down at her arms and legs and she could see the pain she felt before wasn't just mental. It looked like every hair on her skin had been pulled out painfully and left small red dots. It made her skin bruise in most places, and she had red rings around her ankles, which she presumed the man had done when he pulled her feet from under her. All she could do was gasp in the realisation she _did_ look awful.

"Fine then I'll fix us both up." She left it at that and ran into the toilet to grab some bandages, cotton pads and disinfectant for wounds out of a first aid kit. She came back almost dropping the bottle, as she saw Gajeel had taken it upon himself to take his shirt off. Levy saw what looked like a stab wound where the stain had been on his shirt, it made her want to be sick.

She opened the disinfectant and poured some onto the pad, she couldn't help but stare at Gajeel's toned chest while doing so. It was hard to believe a 19 year old could become so muscular... Levy blushed as she realised she shouldn't be thinking like that. But she did kiss him right? Doesn't that mean those feelings have been established? Or did he only receive it as a thank you kiss?

"U-uhm t-this is going to sting..." She warned him while hovering her hand over the wound, if anything made him angry he might do something he'd regret.

"I'm fine, probably won't be as painful as when he stabbed me with that fuckin' dagger". She only widened her eyes, no wonder she couldn't sense any magic from him, he used daggers. They were dangerous; if they were unable to see their use of strength then they couldn't find their weakness right away. Levy really hoped everyone back at the council was alright.

"Did you realise he didn't use magic?" He most likely would have realised after he used the dagger but he must have found some kind of weakness.

"Yeah, I remembered that you can't sense their magic energy if they aren't magic users from that book, plus that they would run out of stamina quickly because they didn't run on magic." Now that surprised Levy, Gajeel actually put something he had read into use. She had underestimated him, and she felt awful for it.

"Wow, nice job." She praised him happily, she felt like it was the least she could do; considering she really didn't expect him to – well use his brain.

"Yeah whatever, you gonna put it on or what, squirt?" And right on cue Gajeel snapped back at her with a snide demand. She realised she had forgotten about the cotton pad, and let out a small 'oh'.

Levy slowly placed the pad onto his open wound and watched his body wince; he was blatantly feeling pain but refused to admit it. So stubborn. Levy left pressed it down a little to make sure it was taking its full effect before replacing it with a new one and securing it in place. She continued to roll out the bandage to wrap around his torso.

She gingerly wrapped the white bandaging around his stomach, practically hugging him whilst she was trying to get the bandage around his waist. After securing it she dabbed cotton pads with the disinfectant liquid onto his small cuts and bruises until they looked much cleaner. The two mages only sat in silence as she tended to him, occasionally glancing at each other.

"Thanks Shrimp." It wasn't the most sincere apology she had ever heard, but Levy accepted it and got ready to leave by slinging the bag over her petit shoulder. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Levy asked, genuinely confused.

"Well you need to be taken care of." The way he phrased it made Levy feel slightly uncomfortable, but apart from that she felt completely fine, it may have looked bad but despite the small headache she felt coming on she felt like she normally did.

"I feel fine, so we can get moving." She smiled at him reassuringly, if she felt bad later she would just summon some water with her magic. But it was nice to see the iron dragon slayer showing at least a little concern for her.

"Well, 'k then. Guess we're off." Gajeel proceeded to lift his own black bag over his shoulder and shuffle past Levy out of the hotel room. Levy wished he would at least show some more concern. Levy only sighed, gave the room one last glance before heading out the door with Gajeel.

...

They made some progress through the town, Levy had stopped by the library and read up on dark organisations and to her relief found places they gather together – as there are few places to hide that many people then at least one of these guys would be at the nearest location. It was a few acres away from a very secluded town called Midnight Town, there was rumoured to be people gathering there in large numbers.

After that Gajeel and Levy set off on the train to the small village. They talked for a while, a lot of it being small talk but apart from that their journey was mostly silent, and as ever she was too conscious of his presence. But after she decided he would have calmed down she dared to ask Gajeel.

"Uh Gajeel, how come you were so angry when we left the council's building?" She was barely audible, but she knew he heard her. His blood red eyes met with hers and it was then Levy realised too late that he was still mad. _Crap. Crap. Crap._

"He said shit I didn't like." Gajeel almost pouted while he stared out of the train window, clearly not wanting to say anything more. But Levy was so curious she could burst. She left him for a few minutes and curled a strand of her hair with her finger before asking.

"L- like what?" She practically whispered, but shook it off. Levy wouldn't be intimidated, and she wasn't. But she couldn't help but feel out of control with Gajeel, she constantly felt like he was taking responsibility for the situation. Part of her liked feeling comfortable knowing he'd take care of things, but most of her realised he could do anything. She didn't have the power to go against him. Ever since that day she decided she wouldn't be afraid of Gajeel, and she still wasn't. Instead he had become her friend, maybe... maybe even more than that.

"Like nothing. He just said stuff 'kay?" He rested his chin on the palm of his hand, avoiding Levy's gaze. But she wasn't having it.

"I said. Like what?" Gajeel looked at her like he had just seen a ghost and Levy found it absolutely hilarious.

"Look shrimp, it was b-"

"I said, like what!?" She said firmly almost shouting.

"He said he wanted to do stuff to you! Alright? That's what he said, and I hated him for it." Gajeel slumped back in his chair, as if he had just given up a battle. Levy just gasped with her mouth hanging open, long enough to catch flies. Before she knew it, she had stepped across the booth and wrapped her arms around Gajeel's neck in an embrace.

"W-w..." Gajeel couldn't speak as his small bookworm wrapped her short arms around his neck, his body was a comforting warm as usual and she buried her head in the comfort of his hair. He was the one who helped her during her battle; he called out to her and made her realise not to give up. She owed him everything.

"Thank you, for protecting me." She whispered into his hair, just enough for Gajeel to hear her, and to her upmost surprise, he in return wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards him further and deepened the embrace.

_**Ahhhh I'm fangirling at my own story _ Wish Mashima would just make them Canon already! Hehe, well anyways, sorry for the (in my opinion) late update! I've been really busy 'cause I've left all my fine art and graphics coursework till the end of my break! So I've been doing a lot of that! But thankfully I've finished this chapter **_**and**_** my art work!**_

_**Hope you all enjoyed this one and there will be a new one as soon as I can manage!**_ _**Please leave a review because I love to hear your feedback! Also feel free to favourite and follow, I appreciate it! Until next chapter! ^_^ - Rowanne**_


	7. A sacrifice

Chapter 7

A sacrifice.

_**Okay before getting into the story, I'm really sorry for not clarifying in my past chapters and for any confusion that any of you may have had! It's been brought to my attention it's not as clear as it could be! :P So basically, the council members were teleported away from their HQ and were essentially kidnapped so after a bit Makarov asked Gajeel and Levy to go look for one of them etc. I guess I made them go to the hotel for no reason except for the fact Levy felt awkward and wanted to say something! So now they're on their way to where they believe a council member may have been taken! **_

_**Again sorry for any confusion, and please continue to read my story! It's far from over! ^_^**_

As quickly as the train journey began, it came to an end. Gajeel took Levy's bag once again as they both arrived at the station that lead them to Midnight town. The now duo tried to be as quick as possible, as their time could be limited. They ran through the town without stopping until they made their way to the very end. For a while Gajeel and Levy walked through fields of tall grass thick shrubs, which was quite amusing to Gajeel to see her almost drowning in the grass.

They talked as they got further away from the town and closer to this possible HQ. Gajeel had felt slightly awkward after the two had shared an embrace, but he couldn't help but be completely confused. Levy had all of a sudden become more... what was the word? Forward?

Gajeel knew he felt _something_ for his friend, but he didn't know whether he'd ever actually be able to do anything about it. The iron dragon slayer knew he wasn't one to express his feelings, whenever he did it was more of an impulsive act. It was never just because he was thinking it, so how was he ever supposed to come up with a subject like that? He brought his attention back to the real world and looked at said blue haired friend. She looked small. Like she always did, but it wasn't her height that bothered him. Gajeel found it perfect, his own little pocket woman.

Gajeel shook his head violently and decided there he'd leave all of those mushy thoughts until after this mission was done. When the entire guild went back to the guild like they usually do and he'll ponder on it then. He brought himself to a standstill as he saw Levy stop in front of him, she must have seen something.

"Gajeel look, it is here!" He walked towards her and followed in the direction her dainty hand pointed to. She was right, it wasn't much but Gajeel could definitely see the quite minute building stood in the back right corner of the next field. It looked like it was made from brick but the majority of it was covered in what looked like ivy. There were two fairly short turrets on both side and small windows down the turrets themselves. It might have been a nice looking building back when it was first built. It looked like they had let the greenery grow up the building to make it more camouflaged against the trees and tall grass around it. He had to admit it worked, but it wasn't enough to stop him from seeing it, as well as Levy.

"Nice job, Shrimp. Let's get over there quickly." She nodded to him and they made their way into the next field. They both quickened their pace into a run; Gajeel couldn't help but notice she was fairly quick for such a small person. The bookworm even managed to keep pace with him. He merely smirked and kept running alongside her towards the building.

The pair of mages slowed down as they reached a fair distance from the building, and began crouching down in the long, tall grass to try and conceal themselves more. Just in case anyone happened to be on watch. Gajeel walked, still in his crouched position in front of Levy as they slowly made their way towards the buildings walls. The iron dragon slayer reached the ivy covered cobble stone walls and pressed his back firmly against the wall on the left side of the main door. He then motioned to Levy hiding in the field to join him, and so she did the same.

Both began to brainstorm as a way to get in without alarming the people inside, Gajeel just hoped the one they encountered wasn't the one who had the ability to teleport. But sadly, they didn't have time to try and find any other entrance, as it had taken them long enough just to find the place.

"I'll barge the door down with my club, you okay with running in and making the first attack on whoever might be in there? I'll be right behind you." Gajeel whispered, looking down to the small yet beautiful girl standing next to him. She nodded with a small smile, and he returned it before executing their small plan.

He formed the club on his hand and stood directly in the middle of the two large doors a few metres away from them. With one swift movement his iron club extended forward, knocking down the wooden doors with ease. He retracted the iron back into his original hand and Levy ran in, prepared to battle. However, no one was in the main hall itself. He joined Levy at her side as they surveyed the room, it was fairly empty, with the exception of a few chairs and tables. He exchanged a sceptical glance at Levy before turning around to leave.

Gajeel almost immediately shot in front of Levy as he saw the two people jump down from the crevice that lay above the door, they landed lightly on the floor with a look in their eyes Gajeel didn't like.

One was a tall woman, dressed in a small black crop top that had small spikes dangling from the bottom that lay on her stomach. It had a line of what looked like animal fur across the v-neck line and yet more spikes on the shoulder pads she wore. Her legs were covered by a long skirt that reached her ankles, however the dress was a translucent green, showing more than enough of her long legs. Her light green hair almost clashed with the green of her skirt as her hair fell way past her back. In a way the woman was beautiful but Gajeel knew she was nothing but trouble. Her cold blue eyes told him so.

The second was a large man, he was almost a head taller than the woman next to him. The man looked like he had never seen a happy sight in his life, a constant 'lost' look stayed in his black eyes. It was like he wasn't even looking. He wore a long black trench coat, with large brown leather boots as well as matching brown pants and a white vest shirt. But what bought his attention was the glistening blue strap that was tight around the man's torso, which held a quiver tight to his back. He held a bow for them in his right hand. However both were scumbags as far as Gajeel knew.

"Come for one of the council member's have we?" The woman asked, smiling at them all too happily. There was one thing Gajeel hated about his enemies and those were the ones who underestimated his strength. "Well, we can't be having that now, can we?" Before she let anything else stop her the woman slammed her hands down onto the ground producing spikes of something clear and sharp.

"Dodge!" Gajeel shouted to Levy as he jumped out the way, Levy did the same to the left and the two were now separated by the woman's magic. Gajeel looked at the material she had just formed... _glass_? He hadn't heard of that before. Gajeel got to his feet quickly and looked through the spikes separating him and Levy to see a distorted picture of the bluenette standing. He let out a sigh, grateful she was safe.

Gajeel formed an iron club with his right hand a shot it towards the glass, hoping it would break as easily as any glass; but to no avail the hit didn't leave a mark on the clear material and almost shone just to mock his failed attempt. He shouldn't have underestimated her.

But it wasn't over yet. He realised that her intention all along was just to separate the two. The woman stood on the side in which Levy was, and she left her friend to handle Gajeel. Maybe this guy was stronger than her.

"Alright bastard, let's get this over with." Gajeel spat, and at that moment he leapt into a sprint towards the tall man. He noticed the man reaching for an arrow from the quiver on his back, with immense speed the man prepared the arrow and made a shot for Gajeel. However, Gajeel saw through it.

_I won't stop to think. Not now._

He dodged to the left of the arrow, getting close to the glass wall. He kept his distance to prevent himself from taking damage off of the sharp glass. The arrow hit the floor and to his surprise shot up in flames. These arrows were different than usual ones... Gajeel sprinted towards the man's side and formed his hand into a sharp iron spike, he brought his left foot back in preparation to take the man's feet from underneath him.

"Gah!" Gajeel's body slammed into the ground as the man simply extended his fist and threw the dragon slayer down onto the ground with unbelievable force. He felt his bones almost crack under the pressure he threw him down with. So he wasn't just using archery magic, he was strong physically too... Gajeel stayed on the ground and reformed his hand into a spike under his body, concealed from the man and as quick as he was down Gajeel got back up again and followed his original idea.

In one second the man's feet were swept from underneath him and his back was flat on the hard floor. Gajeel's spike extended just below his enemies chin, holding him down with his left hand. He panted with effort from before and quickly retracted his iron spike into a hard iron knuckle. He promised himself he wouldn't kill his enemies anymore, he wouldn't be that kind of man again.

Gajeel pulled back his right fist to punch the man.

"Kyahh!" Gajeel looked to his right where the glass wall still remained, the image was distorted but it was enough to make out that Levy was being picked up by her blue hair, and the woman seemed to be winning.

"Levy!" He shouted, but it was a mistake. Gajeel allowed himself to get distracted, leaving his guard open. A punch hit his stomach, that was so strong it knocked the breath out of him; Gajeel stumbled back, holding his stomach in pain – trying to regain his breath.

"B- bastard." Gajeel stammered, with his little restored breath. He wanted to insult the crap out of him, but it wasn't going to help at this point. With much effort he managed to get back onto his feet. This guy was strong, there was no doubt about that.

"You're funny." The man spoke, not smiling despite his remark. It just made Gajeel's desire to defeat the bastard even stronger. With his breath fully restored he felt better, and now had more enthusiasm to fight with.

"Iron dragon's roar!" He opened his mouth wide as a cascading swirl of metal twisted through the air toward his target, the gleam of his iron shrapnel almost sparkled as it when through the air. He didn't take any time to look however. While the enemy was distracted with dodging that attack he launched himself towards his opponent, who was now on the floor from jumping to the side. He didn't notice Gajeel as he brought his club into his side.

He let out a groan of pain as his back slammed the wall of the castle hall. Gajeel smirked from landing his successful punch. This guy was tough, and most likely the rank of an s-class mage, he was going to be tough to beat.

_Levy._

He remembered the battle she was also facing, and took a moment to see how she was doing. From what he could tell she was standing a few metres from the woman and was blocking from an attack. He really hoped she was alright... Before getting too distracted he brought his attention to the man who was now just getting himself back on his feet.

"That. Wasn't as funny." He stood tall again, and to Gajeel's shock, chuckled. Man, was this man beginning to piss Gajeel off. He left no time to be spared and began running toward him with his now iron sword. He panicked slightly as he felt his magic power draining.

His eyes widened as the man ran past him with incredible speed, Gajeel went to move to face the man but felt a pain pull throughout his entire head. He realised the man had a grasp on his thick mane of black hair and began forcing Gajeel's body forward with one of his hands. The dragon slayer gritted his teeth in the pain, and couldn't think of what to do. He felt the pain strengthen in his head, he had never even thought of his hair being a weakness before.

He was all too grateful to be released, even if he was being thrown against the wall of the castle again. The force crushed the wall he hit leaving a round large dent in the wall. His body ached and throbbed, he could feel his heartbeat in his head as his whole body pulsed with effort. Gajeel tried to get up but couldn't summon the energy.

The man readied an arrow in his bow and aimed for Gajeel's chest.

_Shit._

He pulled back the arrow until the colourful feather on the end brushed the cheek of his hard face, and proceeded to let it go with no emotion at all showing on his face. But Gajeel still had one trick up his sleeve. A pale gold magic circle formed under his body on the floor and with his last bit of magical energy he felt the familiar cold iron envelope his whole body. His body was now adorned with his iron dragon scales, and he could almost laugh back at the man as no stupid arrow was going to get through these scales.

However, apparently this wasn't quite true.

It was evident the man wasn't aiming to kill him, however the arrow hit his left arm right beneath his fairy tail guild mark. It made contact with his iron scales, to his relief it only chipped away a small part of his iron scales, but not enough to penetrate his skin. But it didn't seem like that was the man's intention anyways. This arrow, unlike the one before did not blow up into flames but instead something began flowing like water out of the arrow head.

Gajeel struggled in attempt to get up but he hadn't a single ounce of energy left in him, the arrow seemed to make his body heavy and still; but soon Gajeel couldn't feel anything at all. He was paralysed from the neck down. The blue liquid covered his numb body completely up until it hit his jaw line and it seemed to sink in. His scales now cracked as his magic wore away until his arms were visible again and he was left completely defenceless. Not that it mattered now. He couldn't believe what was happening, he was being defeated, and so easily too. It grew even worse as his vision started becoming cloudy.

The man drew his third arrow. He didn't want to die, not now. He still had to help Levy, he still had to tell her what he thought of her. He needed to go home and tell Pantherlily about his day, and have his cat fall asleep next to him. Gajeel wanted to wake up and go to the guild and see her. He wanted to be there for Levy whenever she felt weak... he didn't want to die.

All he could think about was what he wanted to do, it was almost like instead of his life flashing before his eyes... it was all of the moments he would miss in the future. He still had to re match Salamander, and finally challenge Erza... he had to be with Levy.

He released the arrow, and as if some sort of pitiful defence Gajeel shut his eyes tight. When he knew it was just because he was trying not watch his death happen.

...

?

Nothing.

He didn't feel anything, nothing. Did the arrow miss? Gajeel slowly opened his tightly shut eyes, but instead of seeing his enemy, or the room, or even hell as he might have expected... he saw blue. The blue of Levy's messy blue hair. Infact, it was Levy.

The whole world could have stopped for all Gajeel cared, there could have been the worst storm outside, the whole building that surrounded them could be crumbling down in flames and Gajeel wouldn't have known; because Levy had done something he would never ever get out his mind for the rest of his life. She sacrificed herself.

"Levvy!" He shouted it to the sky, he felt so sad, so enraged he couldn't even comprehend what he was feeling. It felt like his head was going to explode, he had never felt so much emotion happening at once. And what happened was completely... magical. He felt his hands, everything return. All of his sense of control over his body returned, he could move.

"Well that wasn't funny." Gajeel ignored the man, he put his arms around Levy who fit neatly into his lap, he looked at her eyes. She looked back into his, with life. _She's still alive. _

"Levy! Levy, you're still alive... thank god..." He looked at the arrow that was embedded into the top right of her shoulder. It- it missed her heart... it missed her heart because she was smaller than him, she was lower down. He couldn't even begin to talk, he thought she was dead.

"I am? Th-that's good..." She gave him a limp smile, despite being alive she looked lifeless. He could see her turning almost blue, he looked at her wound again, she was bleeding out an awful lot. Her red blood stood out a lot against her pale now blue skin. He wouldn't let her die.

"Levy, it'll be fine. I get you to a hospital as soon as I can, let's go." He went to lift her up by putting an arm under her shoulders like he did on the train on the way to the council... why was he remembering that?

"Gajeel look out!" With that Gajeel turned to see the man had readied another arrow, god was this guy a pain in the ass. He was too furious to even think of running, his energy had come back and he was on the verge of murdering this man on the spot for what he did.

"Not today, shithead." With that he ran with incredible speed towards the guy, driving his iron club into his stomach. It knocked him back, and without any time to waste Gajeel punched him across the face with his hardened knuckles repeatedly. The bow and arrow fell from his hand, Gajeel quickly took that opportunity and stamped on them, breaking both the arrow and the bow in half. He would never forgive him. Never.

He formed his fist into an iron spike, and aimed towards his shoulder; he would make things even.

"G... .." Levy practically whispered from her sitting form, she looked awful almost as if she was – dying. She didn't want him to kill the man, despite what he had done to her and almost did to Gajeel. She was too kind, that's why he needed her.

He retracted his spike, and gave the man the hardest blow he could give to his head which promptly knocked the man out. He stood over the man, with victory, but there was no other expression on his face other than a mix of complete rage and sadness.

The iron dragon slayer brought his full attention to Levy sat again the wall. Was... was she crying?

"Levy, how do you feel?" He crouched to sit infront of her, and pulled her in to his arms. She sat, as his fragile little bookworm in his arms. Before anything hit his mind, tears hit his eyes. This wasn't happening...

"D- dandy" She smiled slightly, looking up at Gajeel. He cried, and cried. His tears fell down onto Levy's face, but she still remained smiling... He picked her up in his arms and she grunted with pain that went through her arm. He tried to ignore it, he focused on getting her somewhere she could be healed – and quickly.

He only just realised as he went towards the door that the glass shards had disappeared, and the woman lay unconscious on the floor. She managed to beat the woman, all by herself... why did he always underestimate Levy? She even managed to defeat her enemy and save Gajeel from his... she was so strong and brave, to him she was 10x what he was in those aspects.

"I, I'll get you to a hospital, or somewhere where you'll be alright. I promise you, I won't let you die, not today. Not ever." He said to her as he carried her through the feild, he didn't really give a shit about the council member. He could be anywhere for all the dragon slayer cared, his priority was Levy.

"I- if y-y-ou..." Levy began in a small whisper, clearly struggling to speak Gajeel looked down at her, his tears and sobs grew harder as he watched her struggle to even talk. How could he have let this happen?

"Shh, it's fine don't talk." He said, trying to reassure her as he pressed on through the field, struggling to see through his teary eyes. Levy shook her head, denying his request, he really wished she wasn't so stubborn.

"I-if you p-put me d-down h-h-here, I wouldn't mind d-d-ying w-while being w-w-with you... a-and looking at t-the blue sk-y..." She said, now barely audible. Those words broke his heart, and also broke his walk into a sprint.

"You aren't dying today! You hear me? Y-you can't die now! I love you." Gajeel finally expressed the words he had been thinking for months, but never had the courage to say. He didn't want to look at Levy now, he didn't want to be heartbroken twice within two minutes. But to no avail, he looked at her beautiful face anyways as he ran. The bookworms beautiful smiling face...

"I-in th-that c-c-case I'll h-hold on a li-ttle longer." She turned to face his chest, and smiled.

_**Hope you all enjoyed this and I'd say it's got maybe one or two chapters to go! So anyways please leave a review, I'd appreciate it a lot and I hope you all look forward to the next update! Until next chapter! – Rowanne ^_^**_


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